Lone Soldiers
by Boredtoneardeath
Summary: What if Kirito never met the Black Cats? What if Kiritio instead saved a group of army players and joined the army? AU
1. Ambush!

**Warning:**** There are small mechanical changes compared to the cannon. I do not own Sword Art Online or its characters.**

* * *

**«Labyrinth» 27th floor**

"Do we save the players?!" Hermes yelled before he plunged his dagger into the neck of a goblin that rushed at him. Moments later the Goblin screaming in pain dissolved into polygons and evaporated.

Ares, on the other hand chose to scream with joy as he thrust his sword into a monster's head, "No! We kill!"

Yuri, annoyed by what she heard, confirmed their objective, "Save the players!" Rushing to the aid of a spear user, she kicked a monster, attacking the civilian player, and threw it off balance, sending the creature to the ground. Without waiting to see the monster behind her to be dispatched by the platoon of army players following her, she gestured to the rest of the platoon to jump into action.

With their superiority in number, that dwarfed even the monsters attacking the small player group, the fight was over relatively quickly with minimal causalities for the Army.

After the brief battle was concluded a player who appeared to be the leader of the small group, offered his thanks to the army players before quickly distancing themselves from the army.

"Ungrateful bastards... I would have at least said 'my hero!' A few times." Hermes muttered quietly. His eyes trailing after the small group that soon disappeared around the corner.

Dusting his hands, Aresa putting his humongous shield behind his back, tilted his head slightly towards her, "You sure it was wise to let them go by themselves?"

Yuri, twirling her long hair, stared at the orange sky and wondered if letting them go was the right decision, "They said they don't need our help."

"Better them than me… Could have served the army as quality meatshields…." Hermes commented and sheathed his daggers.

Ares sighed heavily as he crossed his arms glared disapprovingly at Hermes, his battle frenzy now completely replaced by his normal state of mind. "If we brought them with us, they will be killed as soon as one of those criminal scum poked their head out and threw a butter knife at them."

Nodding in agreement Yuri voiced her agreement, "We don't use people as 'meatshields' Hermes. How would you feel if Ares strapped you onto his shield and charged."

Without waiting for a clever answer from the short player she waved to the rest of the platoon, "let's go, we're wasting precious daylight," and with that the large group began slowly marching forward, heading deeper into the maze of trees.

* * *

Kirito, finished with collecting the necessary material for his sword headed in the direction of the exit. The Labyrinth was a difficult place to navigate. It was full of dead ends and roundabouts and To make his trip even longer, Kirito had to take care in choosing his paths to avoid low level players, who would have frowned upon seeing such a high level player intruding their hunting ground.

Of course, he could have just used a crystal, but that seemed like a waste, especially in an area he knew so well. Instead he navigated through the maze on foot, admiring the sights like a tourist.

Unfortunately, just as he made it half way to the exit of the dungeon a loud whistle echoed from the tree tops. Instinctively, Kirito looked towards the source of the whistle and to his surprise saw an orange player sitting on a nearby tree branch, facing away from him.

Next to the orange player on the tree tops, Kirito saw about two dozen more orange players squatting on the nearby branches. All of them aiming their throwing knives at an unknown target, located somewhere beneath them.

Kirito, curious at why group of orange players would be hiding on top of treetops, watched with interest at how this would turn out, until a panicked cry that came in front of him answered his question.

"Ambush!"

Responding to the scream the orange players threw their knives in the direction of the voice. Without waiting to see what would happen next, Kirito immediately began climbing the nearest tree to help the player who had screamed out by dashing towards the group of orange players attacking the unknown party.

Fortunately for Kirito the nearest orange player, much like his colleagues, was focused solely on whatever was going on below the trees to notice, Kirito creep behind the him.

Seeing as how the orange player was squatting on the tree branch, and leaning his body forward with a throwing knife in his hand. An idea formed in his mind and Kirito simply kicked the orange player off from the tree, who after a moment screaming landed on top of the bushes with a loud thud, dazed and moaning softly in pain.

Satisfied with his work, Kirito jumped to the next tree branch and repeated his act. For several minutes the orange players were oblivious to the disappearance of their comrades until the number of orange players had decreased to such a level that the remaining orange players stopped throwing their knives and began looking around. Kirito happy that he had done his job hid behind nearby tree, hoping that his distraction of the orange players would allow the group beneath him would take this chance and escape.

Peaking across the corner of the tree, Kirito saw one of the orange players shout to an orange player who appeared to be the leader of this small outfit. "What the hell is going on boss?!"

The orange leader, appearing confused about the situation he found himself in, took a moment to gather his thoughts before screaming. "It's a trap!" The army must have been waiting for us. The mole lied to us! Get out of here! Back to the hideout!"

Hearing the sensible advice of their boss, some of the orange players climbed down from the trees and ran to safety, while others clutched their teleportation crystal and vanished into thin air.

Smiling at his handiwork, Kirito glanced down to the ground and much to his surprise found a group of army players staring at the treetops.

* * *

As the «Army» platoon moved through the «Labyrinth», Yuri saw one of the players in front of her, looking towards the treetops after hearing a loud didn't pay much attention to it until he screamed screamed.

"Ambush!"

Only an instant later, the private who had yelled out the warning was struck by dozens of throwing knives and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed.

While the rest of the players took out their shields in anticipation of more projectiles headed their way, Yuri took the time and calmly scanned the treetops. Much to her surprise she saw dozens of orange players, squatting on the branches and readying their knives once more.

Without waiting to see what their next move would be, Yuri shouted to the confused «Army» players. "Second volley is coming! Shields up and close rank!"

Following her orders some of the confused platoon soldiers managed to raise their shields and cluster together, forming a shield wall that effectively blocked the volley of knives that fell upon them. However, those who hesitated for a split second, found themselves outside its protective walls and were struck down by the deadly rain.

Hermes, taking advantage of his small size hid behind two «Army» privates while he screamed at his communication crystal, "We are on Labyrinth 27th floor! Oranges attacking us from treetops. Numbers unknown. Coordinates are 20-"

"Don't bother." Ares interrupted his friend dryly and dragged in one of the paralyzed players to safety. Though the giant's voice remained calm, Yuri could see the giant's eyes tingling with excitement. "By the time they arrive, this will be over. One way or another."

"Then, let's teleport out of here, we can't stay here and get picked off one by one, "Hermes said. To prove the short player's point one of the private protecting Hermes fell to the ground with a throwing knife embedded squarely on the private's forehead.

Fortuntely for the fallen private, the blow was not lethal and Yuri pulled out the throwing knife and tossed it away before returning to their conversation.

"And leave them here?" Giving Hermes a disapproving look, she pointed to the paralyzed players, lying outside of their temporary shelter. "Even if we wanted to we don't have enough crystals," she said, mentally running the numbers of crystals they had carried with them.

"We have enough for the three of us, as for the rest of these guys- maybe they won't be killed."

"Would you kindly shut the fuck up?! I'd like to die with some dignity. If you want to run that badly just go by yourself." Ares angrily growled, deflecting another throwing knife with his shield.

"Dying here is not an option! The logical choice is to escape!"

Yuri gave a reassuring glance to her two companions, and raised her hand to stop their conversation, "First we need to get our paralyzed players into the shielded area. Then we can decide whose right."

Increasing her volume, she addressed the rest of the surviving players hiding behind their shields. "On my mark, we break formation and drag the wounded back here!" Though appearing reluctant to leave their shelter, the players nodded in acknowledgement and braced themselves.

Yuri gave her giant friend a knowing look and whispered quietly, "Ares, try to distract them while we try to get the wounded to safety."

Ares answered with a simple nod his face now glowing with excitement. Then without waiting for anything else, ran out of the safety of the shield wall, screaming a battle cry. "Come on you shit-eaters! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

However, to everyone's surprise, no throwing knives struck the giant, nor did any orange player appear from the trees thin air to attack him.

"What the hell?" Hermes stated.

Confused by the situation, Ares lowered his shield slightly to check the tree tops that were moments ago full of orange players raining them down with death.

Yuri while worried on why the attack had stopped, decided to exploit this opportunity and hollered, "Grab the wounded!" Hearing her command, several privates sprung into action, dragging their paralyzed comrades behind the safety of the shield wall.

"We got everyone!" One of the privates shouted.

Giving a small nod to the private, Yuri scanned the tree tops, "Good! Now find out where those orange players are before th-"

"That won't be necessary," The voice said from the tree tops,.

Expecting the voice to belong to an orange player some of soldiers raised their shields, while other administered antidotes to the wounded.

Instead of an attack, the unknown voice became amused, "Don't worry. I took care of your attackers."

Yuri trying to locate the source of the voice squinted and caught a glimpse of a player cloaked in black. Gesturing to the rest of the platoon to stand down, the rest of the platoon with the exception of Hermes and Ares sheathed their swords but clung to their shields tightly.

"Would you, kindly, jump down from the tree?" Ares said, his sword and shield still drawn.

"Sure," the voice replied and with that, the unknown player jumped from the tree and landed right in front of the platoon, smiling.

Ares, seeing the green cursor above the strangers head, sheathed his sword and relaxed.

Hermes, on the other hand, eyed the stranger suspiciously, "Is this some sort of trick? Are you one of those green-orange hybrids? To lower our guard-"

"Shut up, Hermes, be polite. He just might have saved your sorry ass," Ares cuffed the smaller player in the head, effectively disarming the smaller player by making him lose his balance. "If he was going to kill us, why the hell would be jump down from a tree?"

Ignoring the two players, Yuri approached the solo player and tried to convey her gratitude, "We owe you our lives."

"I wouldn't go that far," The black-cloaked swordsman replied, with the smile still on his face.

"You are right. We had it under control." Ares smiled back and extended his hand and a smile to the unknown player, "Lieutenant Ares, «Army»."

Shaking the hand, the swordsman replied. "Kirito, solo."

* * *

**Town of «Ronbaru», 27th floor**

Without further incident, the platoon managed to reach the floor's town safely. Kirito, glad to see that the group had made it to safety, attempted quietly slip away unnoticed. Sadly, the gigantic player who had introduced himself as Lieutenant Ares, caught Kirito and dragged him to the nearest inn, where the army player bought him a meal.

Feeling uncomfortable to be surrounded by so many people, Kirito tried to focus on finishing his meal so that he could get out of this the situation as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Hermes the short player sitting next to him, who at first had treated Kirito with suspicion until his innocence was proven, kept him from finishing his meal with exaggerated tales of valor that the army player supposedly experienced. Unwilling to contradict and point out the plot holes of the stories he heard, Kirito settled on smiling politely, wondering just how much of the story was true and if he would be allowed to escape.

Perhaps happy to see that someone listened to his stories attentively, Hermes playfully punched Kirito in the shoulder, "Hahaha! I told you he was a good guy."

"What happened to the 'Oh, I am sure he's an orange beneath that cursor talk?" The giant asked, giving his friend a skeptical look.

"First impressions hardly matter. Hell, when I first saw you I thought you were a friendly giant. Boy was I wrong-" the short player seeing the dead eye given by the giant, cleared his throat before continuing, "Anyway enough about us. Tell us, Kirito, how did you take care of all those orange players?"

Kirito, unwilling to tell them the whole truth, chose to omit some key points of his story by summarizing it greatly."I just knocked a few of them off the trees. Then the rest of them must have thought they were being attacked by some other group and teleported away."

To his surprise, the golden haired girl shot him a doubtful look from across the table. Fearing that, he would be forced to tell the truth on just how exactly he had performed his supposed feat, Kirito looked away and tried to concentrate his attention back to two male army players.

Fortunately for him, Ares slammed the table gently in excitement. Thereby saving Kirito from the suspicious glare from the female «Army» player, "I don't suppose you would want to join the «Army»? Eh?" Ares said half-jokingly, gently nudging Kirito.

Kirito, unable to reject Ares outright, tried to let the man down gently.

"I-I don't know-"

Hermes, mistaking his polite attempt to decline as hesitation, smirked.

"Ahh, come on!… We aren't so bad. We rescue cats from trees, patrol some dark corners, and of course we get ambushed by orange players in the middle of the forest."

"Why not just tell him that we have dental plans?" Ares added and with that whole platoon who had been listening to the conversation, laughed loudly. Kirito praying that the conversation about the recruitment would now be forgotten with the joke, tried to keep a low profile.

After several minutes passed and the subject of recruitment disappeared completely, Kirito relaxed and stole a glance at the female player sitting across from him. The female player too appeared to have forgotten about the recruitment, evidenced by the frown on her face and twirling of her hair. Glad that the female player was no longer paying any attention to him, Kirito relaxed and listened to the idle conversation of his dinner companions.

However, just as he began to began to enjoy himself, the blonde girl started to stare at him again, this time studying him with interest. Feeling a bit nervous from the attention, Kirito cracked a smile, "So... so... you are part of the «Army» huh?" Immediately after finishing that sentence, Kirito mentally kicked himself for asking such a stupid question.

Predictably, the girl shook her head sadly and Kirito feeling slightly depressed turned his attention back to his meal.

But just as he was about to brutally mutilate the mashed potato with his fork, a voice across the table caught his attention, "Yuri. My name is Yuri."

"Pleasure to meet you... Yuri." Kirito answered, glad that he had not made a complete fool of himself.

Yuri on the other hand, appeared none to concerned on how he felt. Staring him in the eyes, the female player spoke with confidence, "Ares may have been joking, but I do hope that you join us. I am sure you want to be a clearer like everyone else, but we need good people in the «Army». It might not seem like much, but someone needs to do our job."

Before Kirito could answer the chatter around them stopped as everyone stared at Kirito, who fidgeted under the uncomfortable attention he received.

Hermes, seeing the pressure, slapped him cheerfully on the back, "In other words, without us, there wouldn't be anyone to save! And don't worry, Kirito, you will be with us until we can get you trained up and became a member of our elite organization."

Feeling a little bit more comfortable, Kirito smiled, "You guys are elite?"

"Haha very funny..." Scratching his head, Hermes replied.

"Well, the three of us," Hermes pointed to himself, Yuri and Ares, "We are actually not part of this lousy lot. No offence fellas!" Waving an apologetic hand, Hermes ducked just under a mug as it flew over his head and smashed into the wall.

Pretending as if nothing had happened, the short «Army» player, recovering from the light-hearted attack, added, "We are part of a very loose division. Unlike the boring regulars here, we get to go where we please and commandeer whatever squad, platoon, or company we fancy to," without pausing Hermes ducked once more, letting more dishware, a jug this time, fly over his head.

Ares, catching the airborne jug, placed it down on the table, and glared at the unruly platoon disapprovingly, "Also if your skill levels are low, we would be more than happy to level them with you. Not that yours are low of course."

The two «Army» officers continued to explain the benefits of joining the «Army», and all the fun times he would have. Kirito felt like he was being pressed into buying something from by two persuasive salesmen.

"Stop. Let him decide for himself." Yuri said, interrupting the two «Army» players much to Kirito's relief. However, before Kirito could speak his mind and reject their offer politely. Yuri opened her menu and pressed several buttons. Moments later a guild invitation appeared in front of him.

Kirito seeing the guild invitation, stared at it for a long time, as various thoughts crossed his mind that screamed at him to run and stay away from the «Army». Unfortunately the atmosphere of the inn and the peer pressure of the players around him clouded his judgement. Tearing his eyes away from the window, Kirito glanced towards Yuri who kept herself composed, showing little emotion. He then glanced at Ares and Hermes, both of them smiling at him. Unable to think of anything better to say, Kirito simply smiled back and accepted the invitation.

* * *

Major grammar edit: 12/22/2012 .

Major fixes: 1/6/2013.

New Content: 1/8/2013

Small Edits: 1/9/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/14/2013


	2. Skirmish

**Town of «Ronbaru», 27th floor.**

* * *

Kirito jolted awake by in game alarm system that forced his body to rise up. Dragging himself out of bed of the inn, he looked around the room and found Hermes busy writing a message. Quickly dressing into his gear Kirito approached the army player, who upon hearing the sound of his footsteps closed off his message system, before turning towards him and smiled.

"Ah Kirito! Glad to see your up... no don't look too disappointed, yesterday was not a dream... on the plus side I have some presents for you to see."

Opening his inventory, Hermes pointed towards the bed, "Here ya go…. standard issue army gear." He said as laying down the black metal armor and green battle garb on the bed.

Kirito, waved his hand dismissively, "uhhh …no thanks. Those look too heavy for me."

Scratching his head, Hermes scrolled through his inventory. "How about a scout's armor? They are much lighter."

While appreciating what the other player had offered, Kirito wanted to keep his own clothes, simply because he felt more comfortable in them, "No-no thanks"

"Let him wear whatever clothes he wants," Ares commented across the room, still tucked into his bed with one of his eyes opened. "Good for him for refusing to wear that bulky crap. Wish I was that smart when I first joined."

"Bulky crap!?" Hermes shouted, pointing to the sparkling army armor he wore, "This 'bulky crap' is what keeps us alive!"

After taking a moment to compose himself, Hermes tossed the items he had laid back into his inventory. Then the short player tapped several keys and pulled out a shield with an image of a castle embedded in it, "How about a shield eh? I mean carrying around a single sword might look cool, but nothing like a shield to deflect those pesky throwing knives."

Upon hearing the offer he hesitated, wondering if it would be polite to refuse yet another equipment offered because of his personal preference. Taking a moment to think Kirito came to a conclusion and gave Hermes an apologetic smile, "I will have to pass. I need to have both of my hands on the blade… sorry force of habit."

The short player appearing quite disappointed with the rejection, picked up the shield and walked up to the door.

Exhaling loudly the short player opened the door, "Just don't come crawling back looking for a shield when a knife lands on your head." Slamming the door behind him, Hermes disappeared, his footsteps could be heard as the short player made his way downstairs.

Worried that he may have offended the helpful player, Kirito sat on the bed and seriously considered using a shield.

Ares noticing Kirito's worried expression got himself out of the bed and headed towards the door, "Don't worry, Kirito….. Hermes has a mood swing that lasts bout five minutes….. you'll see." Opening the door, Ares motioned Kirito to follow him, "And if knives start flying around….. well you can just hide behind me."

Making their way downstairs, Kirito saw Yuri and Hermes, waiting for the two of them patiently.

Yuri, once she saw that the two late comers had seated themselves, placed a small crystal ball on the table. After pressing a few buttons in sequence, the «Mirage Sphere» began to project a hologram map of the 27th floor. With various markings and symbols that were absent from the general mapping system, in particular, two areas of the map were marked with X. One of the locations, Kirito recognized to be the area that the army group was ambushed yesterday, while the other X located deep within the labyrinth appeared to be mark the location of the hideout of the orange guild.

While Kirito was focused on observing and deciphering the remaining symbols floating around the map. Yuri with a slightly dispirited face twirled her hair, "I just got a message from Major Cobert and it seems that a group of players got robbed on this floor.….."

Hermes upon hearing the news feigned a shocked expression, his face silently expressing his mockery of the small event. Yuri, ignoring the mocking face continued, "...by the criminals we were supposed to catch yesterday."

To his surprise Kirito saw Ares flinch, whose facial expressions betrayed his disappointment and annoyance for failing to stop a crime that could have been preventable, had they been successful in subduing the orange players yesterday.

Perhaps sensing Ares' uneasiness, Yuri turned her attention to the hologram and pointed at the location Kirito presumed to be the hideout, "Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident…. but we need to put a stop to this now. Before it gets out of control."

Ares, whose body language seemed to show that he was just barely holding his rage in check, began tapping on the table impatiently. "If someone got robbed, especially on our watch then things are already out of control." Turning his head in Kirito's direction, the giant asked, "Kirito how many of them did you see yesterday?"

Kirito thought for a moment as he tried to remember how many he players he saw the other day. "Around a two dozen... I think."

Hermes, appearing none too worried about turn of events, stared lazily into the holographic map. "Good with that kind of number, we can probably crush them easily by going after them with the platoon."

Yuri, shook her head in response, "Actually we won't be out numbering them….. we will be leaving behind half the platoon, to guard the outer edges of the town in case someone else gets attacked while we are away."

"What?!" Ares leaned forward in his seat appearing shocked at what he heard, "We had difficulty fighting them off yesterday, what good would it do to bring fewer players!?"

Kirito believing that he knew the answer to Ares' question, intervened before Yuri could answer. "I think if we move in a large group, they might be too alarmed and run rather than fight us." Stealing a glance to Yuri, he found her nodding in agreement much to his relief.

Leaning back on his chair the short player smiled sarcastically, "So in other words, we become the bait…. against a prey, who will be able to kill us, but in reality we will somehow beat them? Oh I see no logical problem with that plan at all."

Yuri, making no attempt to contradict Hermes, kept her poker face and shrugged, "We don't have a need to make them feel like they can take us out in the open like Kirito said….. Or we will just be continued to be ambushed like yesterday."

**«Labyrinth», 27th floor.**

* * *

"Get behind me now Kirito!" Ares screamed just in time to deflect the hail of throwing knives thrown in their direction.

While confident that he could have easily dodged or deflected the flying knives with ease, Kirito positioned himself behind the giant. Just in case a stray knife somehow managed to bypass his defences and land on him. Looking at their current situation from the relative safety provided by Ares and his giant shield, Kirito wondered how all of this had happened. It had only been an hour since they entered the maze and remembering the locations marked on the holographic maps, they shouldn't have encountered the group of orange players this soon.

The more he thought about it, the possibility that the criminals had advanced notice regarding their movement became more likely. Otherwise it would be impossible to explain how they managed to find out their route.

The only logical solution that presented itself to him was that an informant was revealing their every move. However, once he reached this conclusion, Kirito shook his head and mentally chastised himself for thinking such paranoid thoughts about his new guild.

After all it could have just been a dumb luck that the orange players found them so quickly. If anything, this encounter proved to be a boon to the army players, judging by the fact that the orange players seemed to be have been caught in the open without having the necessary time to prepare by positioning themselves on the treetops to ambush them.

Safely standing behind Ares' shield, Kirito saw Yuri in front of him, muttering quietly into a communication crystal and addressing the rest of the platoon, issuing what appeared to be specific orders in phrases of words that he did not recognize. However, the rest of the platoon nodded in acknowledgement and some of the soldiers divided themselves into group of fours, with a heavily armored shield user positioned in front of all of these groups.

Curious at what Yuri had ordered, Kirito looked over his shoulder to Hermes standing behind him, "What did she say? I couldn't understand a word she said."

For a split second Hermes looked at him with a confused expression, until the short player seemed to remember that Kirito had just joined their ranks, "You probably don't want to know, just stay behind Ares, and do whatever we do..." Focusing his attention back to the fight, Hermes muttered quietly, "Ya its probably better not to know the first time."

Feeling intrigued at why he was being left in the dark, Kirito considered asking but before he had the chance, Yuri tapped Ares gently on the shoulder, "Okay, they are getting ready, we can start whenever you are good to go Ares."

Ares with an excited smile on his face nodded in acknowledgement. Then without waiting for anything else, he burst into a full sprint, charging towards the center of the orange group. With his shield continuing to bounce off the knives thrown in his way. Kritio, seeing the giant charging forward, hesitated for a moment until Hermes shoved him from behind to get him moving.

Sprinting, Kirito quickly caught up to the giant. Though he did not know their course of action, judging by the number of knives bouncing off Ares' shield it seemed that the orange players did not approve.

"Ki-kill-Kill it!" One of the orange players shouted, his voice portraying the panic he must have felt. Unfortunately, for the orange players, their throwing knives seemed to have little effect and Ares continued to close the gap between them. Perhaps responding to the death threat made by the orange player, Ares screamed with joy and laughed like a maniac.

Seconds after the battle cry, Ares' shield began to glow brightly in red as the giant army player began using his sword skills. An instant later the shield made physical contact with something solid. Taking a look to his sides, Kirito saw orange players either flying off or hugging the ground. While those standing nearby stared at the four of them, stunned at what they saw.

Yuri realizing that they had reached their destination, shouted at the giant to stop and the giant responded by coming to a grinding halt. Drawing his sword, Kirito found themselves surrounded by orange players.

Before anyone could react, Kirito saw Ares lift his shield high into the air and temporarily block the sun. In front of the giant, stood a terrified orange player rooted to the ground. Sadly for the bewildered orange player, the huge piece of glowing green metal smashed into the orange player and sent him flying.

Nearby, players watched in pure terror and began to back away from the monster with a huge shield. Yuri taking advantage of the situation charged at the nearby spectator.

However unlike his companion, Kirito looked around in an attempt to figure out what he should do next.

Seeing his confused expression, Hermes yelled at him, "Spread out!" Right before he too disappeared into a group of orange players, with his dagger occasional reflecting off the sun as it slashed its way through the crowd.

Seeing that the rest of his squad was sowing confusion and disorder among the orange players, Kirito heeding the advice and began mentally prepared himself to jump into the flurry, until a voice yelled at him urgency, "Kirito! Duck!"

Without waiting to see what would happen if he didn't, Kirito crouched. Fortunately for him, an instant later a battle axe whistled past where his neck was only a few moments ago. Before he could react and return the favour to whoever attacked him, Yuri materialized in front of him and slashed her Katana over his head.

Tiling his head, Kirito saw an Orange player sprawling on the floor with both of his hand cleanly cut off. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kirito tried to offer his thanks, only to find that Yuri had already vanished into the crowd once more. Focusing his thoughts, Kirito concentrated his attention back to the fight and spotted an orange player swing a flail at him just in time.

With the flat side of his blade, Kirito managed to deflect the spiky metal ball. Utilizing the opening made by his parry, he sliced through his opponent's hand and the vulnerable wooden base of the weapon. Ignoring the screaming of the orange player, Kirito took a deep breath and glanced behind him to ensure that no one was sneaking up on him again. Fortunately, instead of an orange player trying to take a stab at his back, he saw the rest of the platoon charging towards them at full speed, with some of the forerunners already smashing into the orange players and cutting down the disorganized rabble with ease. In response some of the orange players broke, abandoning their friends and trying to reach the trees in an effort to escape.

Turning his attention back to the fight, Kirito dashed towards another orange player and amputated the orange player's hands. Just as he was about to do the same to his legs, Yuri shouted at him once more, "Kirito, that's the leader, we have to get him!" Following her eyes, Kirito saw a particular orange player, the very same player who he had identified as the leader yesterday, running away from the battle.

Quickly dispatching his opponent, by putting a stun on him, Kirito left the orange player to be dealt with by the other army players and went after the fleeing player. Behind him Yuri followed a short distance away, struggling to catch up to him.

* * *

After a short chase through the maze Kirito and knowing the layout of the maze like the back of his hand, he soon chased the orange player into a dead end. The orange player, with a panicked look in his eyes looked at Kirito and dropped his weapon to the ground and raised his hands, "Wait a second! You-you must be the guy who knocked us off from the trees."

Looking at Kirito's clothing, the orange leader smiled, "You are not from the army! Thank god! Listen I don't know what the army is paying you but if you let me go, I'll tell you about a certain player who could use you in our organization! They are in desperate need of qualified mercenaries for a really big job."

Before Kirito could decline, Yuri came running around the corner, appearing slightly out of breath for sprinting across the maze.

"I... I am sure we will hear all about it when we interrogate you back in Black Iron Castle," Yuri said. Drawing her weapon, she pointed it at the orange player. Giving the impression that she could easily dispatch the orange player, "Surrender... you got not where else to run."

"Oh I wouldn't say that... you don't know who you are messing with."

Yuri ignoring the bravado continued her approach.

Kirito seeing her movement, tried to slowly flank the orange player by moving towards the opposite direction.

The orange player, realizing their intent raised his hand, "Hey! Stop right there, if you come any closer, you are going to regret it."

"You are going to stop us with your hand?" Yuri asked with her eyes studying the orange player for any sudden movement.

But Kirito from where he stood, he spotted another orange player, whose face was hidden by a brown robe, slowly creeping towards Yuri from behind, his dagger drawn and ready to strike.

Kirito tried to warn the army player but the robed figure staring back at Kirito, gave him a polite smile and moved his finger over his mouth, asking for his silence.

Fearing that alerting her to the threat would result in the orange player striking before she could react. Kirito positioned himself hastily and activated his sword skill «Rage Spike», a relatively weak charge skill. Seeing his sudden movement, the clocked figure brought down his dagger. An instant later Kirito felt his body rushing forward and arrived just in time to intercept the dagger with his sword.

Unfortunately, his sword skill far from being finished continued to propel his body forward with great momentum until he slammed into Yuri and tackled her to the ground.

After a moment of dizziness, Kirito shook his head to get his bearing but felt warmth emitting beneath him. Looking down he found Yuri, who was in the process of realizing her situation and at the same time losing her carefully kept composure with her face turning red. Before he could apologize and move away, she let out a small yelp and pushed him off.

Meanwhile, the cloaked player, while giving a small startled reaction when he heard of the yelp and saw the face of player he almost stabbed, mostly ignored the two green players and continued to walk towards the bandit leader, who smiled at his would be savior.

"Ah! Just in time. Quick, you have to get me out of here!"

The robed player with exaggerated laziness scratched his chin slowly, "Hmm…. I don't know. Your usefulness expired when the army unit decimated your little band of merry robbers..."

The cloaked figure tilting his head in the direction of Kirito and Yuri, smiled fondly, "Good work on that by the way, I thought you guys would have harder time."

Yuri winced at the voice of the orange player, but before Kirito could ask why, the orange player continued his monologue.

"But for you my dear friend... this is most unfortunate turn of events... you know just enough to be a problem should you be captured," the orange player said to the bandit leader, the smile he had shown to Kirito and Yuri disappearing.

Waving his arms wildy, the bandit pleaded, "Listen, it wasn't my fault, I greased all the right people, we had advanced warning, but there is no way we could have thought that they would be that stupid! We didn't think-"

Cloacked figure, appearing annoyed at the rambling, interrupted with a wave of his hand, "Yes I agree…. thinking seems to be something you are incapable of doing…. you had all the resources you required, yet you failed….. And you certainly didn't 'think' about consequences once you became no longer useful or when you thought blabbing about me would save your neck."

"I-I am sorry?" The confused player blurted out.

"Funny….That's what I am going to say to PoH when I break the tragic news of your death," The Orange player dryly commented as he ran through the bandit chief with his dagger. Twisting his dagger, to deliver the largest amount of pain, the robed figure in a practiced fashion retracted his dagger while his victim stared at his savior with shock.

Seeing the shock on his victim's face, the orange player smiled apologetically, "don't worry it will be painless," then with the dagger in hand, swiped at the orange player's throat twice.

Watching the his health gradually dropping, the bandit leader instinctively reaching for his neck and managed to gasp for breath one last time, before he collapsed and exploded into tiny fragments.

Kirito looked at the killer with disbelief, in response the orange player smiled sheepishly. Sheating his dagger, the orange player without waiting for further reaction from his audience, pulled out a teleportation crystal and whispered gently. Finished with his preparation, the orange player placed a finger over his mouth once more, asking for their silence while his body began to disappear.

Kirito unwilling to let the stranger get away with murder, ran towards the killer, aiming for the crystal before it could finish the teleportation. However, he was a second too late and his blade swept through the transparent crystal harmlessly. The orange player observing his failed attempt to stop him, smiled codly right before he evaporated into thin air.

* * *

Minor Edit: 12/22/2012

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/14/2013~1/15/2013


	3. Six Feet Under

**Abandoned mine, 1st floor**

* * *

With an annoyed face Hermes kicked a rock in front of him, sending the pebble crashing into a nearby tree, "It's been two days! What do we need to guard this mine for? What orange player in his right mind would want to attack here."

Ares shook his head sadly, and looked at his friend with pity, "If someone was to attack us here, on the first floor of the game, it would make the entire army look like incompetent."

"Oh that's right, everyone still thinks that we are the very symbol of efficiency and competence," Hermes replied bitterly and vented his frustration by kicking yet another rock into the forest.

The giant provided no response and with that the two arm players went back to staring at the sun, with incredibly bored expressions drawn on their faces.

Kirito, fearing that if he didn't do anything, he would soon be joining them in watching he sun slowly fall, tried his best to keep the conversation flowing, "Why us? Shouldn't the local garrison do this job?"

Ares exhaled loudly and scratched his head, "They should…. but any sizeable divisions are being gathered for an assault on some large orange guild…. so most of the floors, including the 1st floor, are currently being maintained with just a skeleton crew."

"What?!" Hermes jolted, surprised by what he heard, "You got to be kidding me… this must be one of Kibaou's shenanigans. That idiot doesn't know that taking out a single orange guild is not worth leaving all our other floors vulnerable to attack!"

Kirito upon hearing the name Kibaou involuntarily winced. His memory of the angry player still fresh in his mind and the unpleasant incident on the very floor he stood at this very instance.

"Shut up Hermes, since when did you become a philosopher…. besides Kibaou has done nothing but good things since he came along, we are now actually fighting criminals for a change, unlike Thinker, who only 'thought' about doing what Kibaou has already done."

"Ya?! Well you know who he reminds me of? Good old Hitler!" Hermes shouted back, raising and pointing his finger at the larger player.

"He finds himself a scapegoat, in our case the beaters, and justifies by blaming them. He's a disgrace to the guild." Making his point clear, Hermes spat on the ground for a dramatic effect, "and even don't get me started on the amount of corruption we are having these days, hell I bet the soviet-"

"Say what you want," Ares growled at his smaller friend, "but that still doesn't change the fact that he is doing something."

Hermes after a few moments of uneasy silence turned his attention to Kirito, who up till this point had been trying to stay out of the heated discussion, and asked, "What do you think about Kibaou? I want to hear how people see him outside the army."

Though he had a fairly solid opinion about Kibaou's character, he didn't know the two players in front of him well enough to know what kind of reaction his true opinion would bring. Fearing that the truth may have uncomfortable consequences, he decided to tell them a small white lie instead, "I…. I don't know, I don't really know the guy."

Hermes disappointed to hear Kirito's feigned ignorance, leaned back against a wooden fence.

After a few moments of silence, Ares sighed, "Regardless of what happens in the other floors…. or our guild politics. We should up be there fighting with them, beating those oranges into a pulp."

"We should be there," Hermes agreed, "But not after our failure, we are not. This is punishment remember?" Hermes said, dusting off a speck of dust that had landed on his armor.

Kirito shocked to hear such news looked at the short player with surprise, "For what? Didn't we capture most of the orange guild?"

Offering a sad smile, Ares answered, "Yes we did. But you have to remember that we…. failed on our first try and the leader who we were supposed to capture for questioning ended up dead."

Scratching his head, the giant murmured quietly with a gloomily look on his face, "still you weren't with us for the first part of the job…. sorry for dragging you into this."

Waving his hand dismissively Kirito smiled politely, trying to cheer the depressed player, "It's alright I don't mind being, in fact its nice to visit the first floor for a change."

Turning his attention to Yuri, who was in the process of staring into the empty air twirling her hair , he shouted across to her, "Yuri! Do you think we will be getting out of here soon?"

Yuri stopping her hand from abusing her hair for a moment looked at him with a confused face, "Sorry did you say something?"

Feeling awkward for bothering the player, Kirito shook his head, "Never mind, forget I said anything." Giving him an annoyed look, Yuri went back to her dormant state, twirling her hair and frowning at something he could not see.

"Is it just me or does she seem distracted? Is this normal for her?" Kirito asked, tilting his head towards the female player.

Ares scratched his head once more and carefully studied the female player, "Hmmm…. now that you mention it, I think she started acting a little off the day after you joined. Maybe you are the reason eh?"

Hermes, his face tingling with excitement smiled in a way that made him feel slightly at uncomfortable, "Did you do something to her while I wasn't looking?"

Kirito remembering that he had tackled Yuri to the ground felt himself wince. Before his body could betray any further information, he repressed the memory with all his might.

Creating a poker face, Kirito tried to steer the conversation in a different direction, "No, nothing like that happened. I am guessing that it has something to do with the orange player we met."

Hermes tilting his head looked at Kirito with suspicion, "You sure about that? I like my theory better…."

Fortunately for him, before the inquisitive player could ask any further questions, excited voices echoed from the mine and grabbed the attention of the guards.

Ares with an annoyed face, peered into the mine, "What are they doing in there?" Exhaling loudly, the giant dusted his hands, "Alright Hermes... Stop shoving your hideous face where it doesn't belong and let's go, it's time for us to do our job." Stretching his body, Ares disappeared into the mine and Hermes giving Kirito a knowing look reluctantly followed after the giant.

With the two army players gone, the entrance grew silent and Kirito having better nothing to do watched the woods in front of the mine, trying to take in the sights.

However, after a solid minute of gazing at the forest, he grew bored and in an attempt to combat his boredom he stared at Yuri, trying to study the female player who appeared to be in a vegetable like state.

Wondering what she could be thinking about, he carefully walked towards her, Kirito leaned against the wooden fence next to her, "Something bothering you?"

Yuri pulling herself out of her thoughts gave him a short glance, "Nothing."

Knowing that Yuri just lied to him, he probed a little further, "Well something clearly is, is it the orange player that we saw a few days ago?"

In response to his questioning, Yuri twitched and avoided looking him in the eye. Turning her attention to the patch of dirt in front of her, she began studying it with great interest, "Why are you asking?"

"I-I am just a little worried."

Yuri perhaps realizing that he was not going to give up so easily, after some hesitation reluctantly admitted. "The orange player, we saw... he reminded me of someone I once knew."

Curious at how anyone could remind her of a killer, Kirito asked, "Who?"

Yuri frowned at his continued insistence and rest of her body language told him to back off as well, with a slightly edged voice she replied, "You sure you want to know?"

Unfortunately, Kirito while knowing better than to ask personal questions, could not resist the urge and ignored the warning. Hoping that his question would not anger her too much, "Yes, could please tell me."

Visibly irritated by his interest, Yuri looked at him disapprovingly and for a moment it appeared that she would choose to remain silent, but after a sigh she began to explain.

* * *

**25th floor**

"Pretty please? Say it! Onii-chan!" A brown haired player asked, with pleading eyes.

Yuri replied with an annoyed face, "No"

"Onii-san?" The other player asked with a flicker of hope on his face, "Oni-sama!?"

Yuri feeling the blood rushing to her head screamed loudly, "Never!" And unintentionally drew the attention of nearby players much to her dismay.

Brown haired player upon hearing her proclamation, sniffed with a mournful expression painted on his face and cried out, "Ahhhhh! I remember like it was yesterday, when you would sit next to me as I played the piano and you would listen for hours. Alas the days of my cute sister calling me Onii-chan are now long gone! NOOOO!" Giving Yuri another glance, he pretended to sniff once more. "Oh cruel, cruel world! Why!"

Yuri realizing that nearby players had begun to openly staring at the two sibling with amusement, felt her face turning even brighter. Placing her hand over her face to hide her and murmured quietly, "Stop..."

Her brother, clearly not bothered by scene they had made, smiled. "Come on! I might not come back alive! Statically speaking, killing a boss is a risky business!"

"Yet, you made it back for the other 20 floors." Yuri said, removing her hand from her face and giving him a small smile.

The older player, perhaps not having the answer to her simple statement remained silent. After scratching his chin, he slumped a little with a defeated look on his face, "Haha... fine Yuri…. You win for today but rest assured I shall try again-"

"Hey! Stop playing with your sister! You know that's messed up!" One of the army players yelled at her brother, as he passed them by.

Giving the passer-by a scowl he replied, "Fine, fine! I am coming!" Sighing heavily he muttered to himself, "It seems I can't have any quality time until the boss is dead these days…."

Turning his attention back to Yuri he smiled warmly, "I ll meet you back at the hunting grounds after I finish the floor…. now don't get into trouble while I am gone! I'll see you in a few hours."

Staring at her hand, that had been subconsciously twirling her hair, he looked at her amusingly, "and Yuri… if you keep abusing your hair by twirling like that, you will go bald like-"

Upon seeing the angry look on her face, the older player had just enough time to dodge a fist aimed straight for his face.

Seeing that he had outworn his welcome, her brother hastily made his escape towards the large group of army players, and soon disappeared inside the sea of players. Closing her eyes, she could hear his voice pierce through the crowd, "Alright you sorry lot! Let's hurry up! We are wasting precious daylight."

* * *

Closing her eyes, she finished her story, "and that was the last time I saw him," Yuri said.

Remembering that the 25th floor had been a graveyard for countless army players, who had been slaughtered by the abnormally strong floor boss, he blurted out, "I-I am sorry, I didn't know."

"Don't be." Yuri replied with a hint of anger.

Wondering why she would sound so angry about her brother's death rather than sad, Kirito considered asking why she appeared angry until he realized that it probably had to do with him crossing the line by asking her such a private question. Juggling his brain, he tried to think of a way to apologize for his intrusive questioning.

Before he could present he with a half baked apologize, Yuri held her hand up and stopped him, "Now I got a question for you, when we first saw you, you were in the labyrinth alone, and you supposedly prevented an entire group of Orange players from attacking us…. I am not going to ask how you did it but just how strong are you?"

Though the rational part of his brain screamed at him to tell her a lie, the rest of his brain disagreed and took control. Feeling that he owed her the truth, especially after hearing her private story, Kirito stared at the ground, unable to meet her gaze.

Taking a moment to compose himself, Kirito finding the necessary courage to confess his skill level tried to tell her the truth, until he heard a distinctive sound of footsteps coming from the forest.

"Did you hear that?"

Mistaking his question to be an attempt to avoid answering her question, her eyes flashed with a flash of anger, "Answer the question."

Ignoring Yuri, Kirito opened his map and changed its setting, to show Yuri what he had heard. An instant a small window materialized in front of him and within it, their current location was marked with two green cursors. Pointing north of their position, Kirito gestured to a cluster of orange cursors only a few hundred meters away, a horde of orange cursors that was moving in unison, rapidly closing the distance between the two.

Yuri shocked at what she saw, quickly counted the numbers of the orange cursors. Then without hesitation she pulled his arm and led him into the mine while she muttering into the communication crystal, informing the rest of the army of their situation and asking for whatever they could scrape together. Sprinting through the mine-shafts as fast as their legs would carry them, Kirito hoped that their situation would not come to a violent end.

After a minute of sprinting, Kirito, with his superior dexterity, found himself pulling Yuri along the tunnel of the mine. Taking a sharp turn around a corner they came face to face with Ares, who looked at the two of them with surprise.

"Kirito, Yuri!" He shouted out before rushing to meet them, behind the giant Kirito spotted Hermes and several miners looking right back at him.

Appearing curious at why they had come, Hermes asked, "What are you doing back here? Shouldn't-"

Yuri panting loudly interrupted the short player with a wave of her hand, "Orange… orange… orange…."

"Orange juice?" Hermes offered a guess, puzzled at her behaviour.

Kirito despite the seriousness of the situation couldn't resist smiling at the guess and pointed towards direction of the entrance, "We have a large group of orange players coming this way. We need to get out of here now."

"What?! No-no we can't do that there are miners down here." Ares said pointing towards a group of miners who were busy at work behind them.

"Is there any second exits?" Kirito asked.

Shaking his head, Ares replied, "Only the one you two came in from."

Yuri by this point in time, recovering sufficiently from her long sprint drew her katana, "Then get them to the deepest part of the dungeon,"

"What about us?" Hermes said, drawing his dagger.

"We will have to hold them out until reinforcements arrive." Yuri answered, tilting her head towards the direction of a tunnel that had now come alive with the sound of players rushing through the mine shaft, yelling and screaming.

Moments later the horde of orange player like a flood, spilled through the tunnel. The orange players upon spotting the tiny orange group brandished their weapon with glee.

One of the orange players holding an estoc, who appeared to be leading the group, urged his comrades forward, "Hurry up! They just alerted their base, we have less than twenty minutes before they get here."

Kirito surprised at what he just heard, wondered how the orange player knew of the message that Yuri had sent that message only a few minutes ago.

Before he could share his thoughts with the rest of the squad, the first of orange players launched himself at him. Quickly blocking the attack he answered with a counter attack, and his mind focused on surviving.

* * *

Catching his breath, Kirito looked around and much to his relief found that all four of them remained standing. If the battle had been fought in an open field, the small group would have been overwhelmed within seconds, but thanks to the narrow mine shafts that created a natural bottleneck that prevented the orange players from running over them with their superior number.

Not to mention that the orange players, because of being clustered tightly, could only swing their weapons in a limited fashion without hitting their friends.

However, in his eyes it seemed that even with these advantages it would only be a matter of time, before they would be exhausted by the numerically superior orange players.

Consequently, their small group began to lose ground and began to back off slowly, heading ever deeper into the mine. However, in their retreat, Ares tired from the prolonged fighting lifted his shield a little bit too high for a split second and one of the orange players taking advantage of the small gap managed to land his battle axe onto the giant's foot.

Screaming loudly, Ares fell to the ground and returned the favor to his attacker by violently removing his legs with a swipe of his sword.

Seeing the giant fall Kirito, moved in and stepped in front of the wounded player, before another orange player could take advantage of the fallen player.

While Kirito held his ground, Yuri without looking at had happened, shouted to Hermes, "Get Ares out of here!"

With a simple nod, the short player began dragging the giant along the ground and tried to reach safety. However, Ares despite lacking one of his foot resisted by dragging his remaining heel while screamed in fury, "Let me go! Those little shits think that cutting my foot will save them! It won't! Come on! Get your ass over here and I will put my boot up your-"

Hermes, perhaps not so impressed with the foul language shoved a healing potion into his friend's mouth like a baby bottle, effectively silencing Ares and the two players soon disappeared around the corner.

Kirito and Yuri now the only ones holding the orange horde at bay began to fall back at a much quicker pace. Yuri while doing an admirable job holding the enemy at bay, proved to be no match for the onslaught she faced. Realizing that the responsibility of holding the orange players now fell onto him, Kirito gritted his teeth and doubled his effort, with his sword flashing furiously in an attempt to keep the orange players away.

Strangely enough, with every strike he landed, Kirito began to feel slightly at peace, with everything seeming to move a little bit slower. Dodging a spear with ease, Kirito effortlessly sliced the tip of the weapon and lowered the health of the orange player, just enough to scare him off. Rolling to his side to dodge a swipe of a claymore, Kirito felt as if his body fall into a steady rhythm while his arms and legs, moved faster than they ever had ever before.

He heard himself scream, and his blade spun faster and faster until it became a whirlwind. Orange players brave enough to get close soon found themselves missing either their weapon or a body parts. But even with his superhuman effort, the orange players continued to advance by shoving their wounded comrades aside or in some cases simply stepped on them.

However, the speed of their advance had visibly slowed and one of the orange players with terror in his eyes, slowly backed away, until he was prodded by an estoc.

"Why can't you idiots take down two players?! We are running out of time!" The orange player holding the estoc screamed at the rest of the orange players.

"XaXa! We-we just can't he is too fast." The prodded player replied back, trying his best to stay away from Kirito's sword.

XaXa appearing extremely annoyed drew his throwing knife. "Everyone take a step back! Change to throwing knives! All you! Let's see him block all our knives without a shield!"

Following his command, the criminals each took a single step back and pulled out their throwing knives, but before XaXa could order them to be thrown, a hand grabbed Kirito and pulled him away. For a split second, Kirito considered using his sword against the hand that pulled him away from the fight until he realized the hand belonged to Yuri.

"Come on, we bought enough time." She commented, judging by her current condition, she seemed to be on her last leg and seemed close to collapsing from exhaustion, the army player pulled Kirito by his hand and the two players found themselves running deeper into the mine.

The orange players, while appearing confused for at their abrupt departure, soon howled with excitement and gave chase.

The two of them sprinted through the mine with throwing knives whistling past their heads, while Kirtio with some effort managed to deflect the knives that came close to them with his blade. After a few minutes of sprinting, they soon lost sight of the orange players. Figuring that their pursuers must have gotten lost somewhere within the shafts, he relaxed.

Continuing on their path cautiously, Kirito peeked around a corner just in case, but to his surprise found Hermes poking his head out from a wooden door, silently waving his arm to grab their attention.

Without waiting for an invitation they ran straight into the room and once they were safely inside, Hermes closed the door shut and barred it. Relieved that they were safe for the moment, Kirtio inhaled and exhaled deeply. Next to him, Yuri slumped to the ground, exhausted from the fighting.

Looking around the room, Kirito saw Ares still missing left foot comfortably seated on a nearby chair. Behind him, Kirito saw a small group of miners huddled together for safety, while appearing to be panicking at their current situation.

Hearing nothing suspicious on the other side of the door, he stepped towards Yuri. Seeing as this room would most likely be their final stand, he figured he might as tell her the truth when he could.

After a slight hesitation, he grabbed Yuri by the shoulders and looked her in the eye, "Yuri. The question you asked before…. well the reason why I was able to take those guys down was…. well…. it's because I-I am a beater."

Yuri still recovering from the fight, stared at him like an idiot. Confused at her reaction, he wondered if she had heard what he had said.

"What? Aren't you-"

Hermes over hearing their conversation spoke cheerfully, "We have a strict, don't ask don't tell policy regarding beta testers! Haha just kidding…. but seriously… I was really hoping that you had some magical ability that would save all our asses, rather than 'Hi, I am Kirito and I am beater'."

Kirito wanted to say that, hesitated on telling anyone due to the negative reaction he expected from them but after a moment of thought, decided that further explanation would probably not be needed. Instead he smiled, "I wish I could, No I think we will just have to do with what we have."

"Speaking of what we have. How many teleportation crystals do we have?" Yuri asked, picking herself from the ground and getting ready for their last stand.

"As usual…. no where enough." Hermes replied happily, "Looks like this is going to be the end of the line for us…. but on the bright side we are already six feet under, so no worries there."

Ares staring at his short friend with suspicion leaned on his sword and hobbled towards the shorter player, "You are unusually happy, considering we are going to die and all. What happened to I am too pretty to die attitude of yours?"

Hermes smiled sheepishly at the approaching giant, "The door can't be destroyed right? So all we need to do is sit tight and wait for help."

Putting his hand over his face, Ares replied, "The door 'CAN' be destroyed this is not an area protected by the criminal code, a good swing from a war-hammer will blow this door wide open."

Hermes unaware of this fact, paled and became terrified, "WHA-WHAT!?"

In response Ares smiled at his friend's shock and misery. "That's the coward I know. Don't worry Hermes once my foot grows back we will teach those sons of-"

Before Ares could finish his heroic speech the door burst open and filled the room with dust, blocking their vision. Kirito positioning himself right in front of the door, waiting for the dust to settle so that he could fight till the end. Fortunately, instead of the orange players he expected to see, the group behind the door was the army reinforcement that Yuri had called in what seemed like ages ago.

Kirito relieved to see the army players, sheathed his sword and relaxed, "We are glad you could make it."

Hermes, frowning at his armor that had been covered in dust from the forced entry, still managed to smile at his would be saviors, "Ha! I knew you guys could make it! But wait a second. Why didn't you just knock?"

The army player on the other side of the door, with a greatly disappointed expression stared down at Hermes, "Seriously?… we just ran all the way from the 24th floor to save your asses and you tell us a knock knock joke?"

* * *

Minor Edit: 12/25/2012

Quotation restructuring: 1/08/2013

Some content added: 1/08/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/15/2013


	4. Unexpected Reunion

**24th floor «Teutoburg Forest»**

* * *

The sun shone brightly and according to the forecast, it appeared it would stay that way without any chance of rain. Incidentally, at least in his mind this type of weather provided the perfect weather for a blood bath that would soon take place.

Orion dressed in his army uniform observed the steep cliffs to his flanks with interest before shifting his attention to his men in the middle, vigilantly guarding the sole path through the ancient forest.

It was a shame that it had to come down to this. There once was a time when army would be focused on clearing floors, rather than dealing with orange player exclusively. Shaking his head, he tried to push away the old memories.

Bringing his focus back to his men, he knew that he had no where near enough players he had asked for. Muttering to himself bitterly, he mimicked the degenerate's voice responsible for his current situation, "'Oh sending people down to the first floor is more important…. Oh Orion will just be fine with half the number he needs and asked for'."

Looking ahead of him, Orion could see one of his scouts running towards him, "They are coming! They are coming! There are hundreds of them!"

Upon hearing the unfortunate news, he silently cursed the bastard who did this to him, and made sure that his men had positioned themselves precise in the location he needed them in.

The scout clearly anxious about the situation looked at Orion with his hands trembling in fear, "This-this is suicide, we got to get out of here."

Though he felt exactly the same way, Orion attempted to project absolute confidence and smiled, "Now, we both we can't do that….. Just because they outnumber us by a tiny little bit doesn't mean we are going to turn tail and run like children! No! You are going to stand tall and pretend like you are god's gift to this world!"

While the scout did as he was told, Orion opened his map and tried to count just how many players they would be facing. To his surprise, the number of players he counted, proved to be slightly lower than what he had anticipated, but even then the approaching group outnumbered them three to one, more than enough to squish his smaller group with ease.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Orion stole a glance towards his lieutenant for reassurance and found her busy at work organizing their small group into the roles that they would be playing in the upcoming battle. Seeing his gaze, she replied with a nod of her own before continuing with her work.

Right before he decided to order his men to get into a formation, he spotted a glimpse of flag appear on the horizon. Several seconds later the horde of enemy players emerged from the horizon, marching in unison and at the same time giving him doubts on if he would survive this encounter.

Looking at his men who seemed more frightened than he was. Taking a deep breath, Orion howled his orders with all the air within his lungs, "Alright you sorry lot! This is it! The moment you all been avoiding! Phalanx formation! Tanks forward! Spear and lances back! Rest of you get your throwing knives out!"

Upon hearing his words, the men moved to their designated position and prepared themselves. In a matter of seconds, a neat of line of players formed with shields and spears sticking out towards the approaching horde, a horde that had now in begun their charge straight at them.

Once the horde got into range, several players threw their throwing knives in an attempt to thin out the enemy's number. Unfortunately their valiant attempt had little effect, due to several knives completely missed their targets while others that did find their mark but doing little harm to the charging players.

Before Orion could lecture his knife throwers for their inaccurate aim, the first of the enemy players launched themselves towards the formation. In response the shields and the spears glowed brightly with sword skills.

Out of the countless players that charged against their line, the lucky few managed to bypass the spears and smash right into the shields, while others were simply impaled by the long spears poking through the between gaps, that held them in place until their comrades pushed their body deeper into the spear and unintentionally killed them.

For the moment it appeared that the defenders would be able to hold, but Orion knew that it would only be a matter of time before the attackers managed to break past their entrenched position then proceed with slaughtering his forces.

After making sure that all of the enemy players had engaged his entrenched group, or in most cases stuck behind their comrades due to the natural bottleneck created by the terrain, Orion scrolled through his inventory and pulled out a corridor crystal. Carefully pressing the confirmation button and activating the crystal, he waited patiently for the one way portal to materialize in front of him.

Slowly the blue light portal began to form and across the battlefield he heard a familiar voice taunting at them. "Haha! They are trying to escape! Push harder! We have them now!"

Giving a one finger salute in the direction of the voice he recognized, Orion gestured to his remaining men and stepped into the portal.

An instant later, he found himself standing on a dirt road. Checking his position on the map to make sure he had arrived on the correct coordinates, Orion then looked around and found his target group directly in front of him, facing away from him and towards the battle that kept them distracted.

Behind him, the rest of his troops materialized. Putting his finger over his mouth to ask for their silence the small group fanned out into a long line formation and sneaked behind their unsuspecting enemy. Drawing their weapons silently, Orion made first contact by running through one of the enemy player with his trusty dagger. Meanwhile his other hand moved to cover his victim's mouth to muffle the screaming. Next to him, the rest of his group did the same, taking extreme care to make sure that they would remain undiscovered.

For the next few seconds, they continued to silently eliminate their targets, until one of his men slipped and failed to deliver a fatal blow, allowing his supposed victim to scream out for an instant before being disposed of.

Unfortunately, the single cry of thier comrade grabbed the attnetion of the nearby enemy who upon turning to the source of the scream, found Orion and his men.

Unwilling to let the element of surprise go to waste, Orion cursing loudly charged into the tightly packed group of enemy players, his dagger slashing ferociously and managing to cut down several players.

With a second attack apparently coming from their back, the majority of the enemy forces soon became confused not knowing how to react. Though some players attempted to rally their confused comrades into maintaining order, several players had already teleported themselves away to safety without waiting what would happen if they stayed.

The small desertion of few players combined with the general confusion ensured that the enemy forces, despite the fact that they still vastl outnumbered its foe began to retreat. Unfrotuntely for the horde, the organized retreat soon turned into a rout and many players without bothering to sheate their weapons, threw them down to the ground and ran from the battle.

Though a small part of his brain told them to let them go, Orion knew they would eventually return and haunt in the coming days. Barking out to his men, he ordered the retreating players to be tracked down.

Watching his men disappear give chase, Orion with a heavy sigh sheathed his dagger. Taking a stroll through the battlefield, he spotted several orange players nursing their wounds. In the past he would have dealt with them accordingly but at the moment, he had to deal with a slightly more pressing matter.

Scanning his surroundings, Orion found a fellow army player grabbing at the stump where his leg should have been. Rushing towards the army player, Orion gently tapped the wonded plahyer on the shoulder in an effort not to startle him. Though the army player jolted, he relaxed upon recongizing Orion's uniform. Flashing a reassuring smile, Orion handed the wounded player a healing potion and stood guard over him.

After a few minutes the army player's limb regenerated and Orion with a bright smile on his face asked, "So... Tell me, who was the idiot leading the attack?"

"Huh? You don't know? It's Cobert." The army player answered slightly confused at his question.

Orion upon hearing the answer grabbed the army player by his collar and lifted him up to his feet. Standing up, the army player for the first time saw Orion's face and more importantly the color of cursor, "You-you are orr-orange."

Smiling coldly, he placed a teleportation crystal into the trembling hands of the army player, "Go and tell Cobert that if he tries to come into this neck of woods again…. I am going to make what just happened to your company look like a happy picnic." The orange player cheerfully told his captive and tossed the army player into the ground, the terrified player after a few moments of awkward silence came to his senses and hastily teleported to safety.

**1st floor «Black Iron Castle», Briefing Room**

* * *

Kirito stared at his menu. His attention focused on a skill «Dual Blades» that floated amongst his other skills. Looking at the unknown skill, he wondered just how he had acquired this extra skill and more importantly if anyone else knew anything about the skill. Though he had no answer for the first question, Kirito guessed that someone within the army had to know more about the skill, after all the army possessed number of players within its rank. He decided that at the first chance he got, he would ask someone about it. Mentally approvingly his course of action, Kirito focused his attention on the man in front of him.

"-Captain Orion….. a former member of the army, now a disgrace to the entire guild. After the disaster in the 25th floor, where he lost all of his men for his incompetence…..." Cobert pointing towards a picture of an army player, who Kirtio presumed to be Orion, and sneered, "This idiot decided that his failure was not because of his own stupidty but had the nerve to accuse us for his failures and turned orange!" Cobert screamed and paced in front of squad, his face bright crimson face conveying his unstable emotional state.

"Recently, one of our forces was sent to the 24th floor, in an attempt to capture this disgrace…. but they were forced to retreat…. due to unforeseen circumstances….." Clearing his throat, the major continued, "Now I wish I had more information to provide but all of his friends and players who could have provided such information on this scum bag died on the 25th floor."

At the mention of the 25th floor, Kirtio stole a glance towards Yuri, who appeared to be quite troubled by what she heard. He wondered if this orange player was a friend of her brother who had somehow managed to survive.

"Now… that being said. Your objective is to meet up with lieutenant Praxidike and her squad. Afterwards you are to patrol the 24th floor."

Hermes, raised his hand and interrupted the major, "That's it?! What does that have to do with anything with this guy?"

Cobert appearing annoyed to have been interrupted, glared at the short player, "As I was saying, after making contact with Lieutenant Praxidike and her men, you are to patrol the floor as you normally would and if an attack should occur, then all you are going to do is to defend yourselves."

Kirito puzzled by what the major was saying, asked the question that must have been in everyone's mind, "So we are not going to try and capture this player?"

Cobert exhaling loudly and looked at Kirito with an extremely irritated look on his face, "Son…. it's not that I doubt your abilities but I don't think you or anyone for that fact will be able to succeed where a division of highly trained players failed…. for now displaying army presence within that floor is our top priority."

After that Cobert droned on about certain protocols and policies for several minutes that they would be required to perform while on the 24th floor, until the major eventually finished his briefing.

With the briefing concluded the rest of the squad quickly dispersed, each going off to take enjoy their time before they would be required on the 24th floor. Kirito figuring that he did not have anything better to do got up from his chair and headed towards the exit, in hopes of exploring the interior of the «Black Iron Castle».

However, after taking no more than few steps from his seat, Kirito saw Cobert beckoning at him. Seeing no other choice, he reluctantly approached the major. His brain trying to remember if he had done something to offend the scowling army player.

Cobert, taking an empty seat next to him opened his system menu and navigated his way into guild management, "Private Kirito is it? I read what you have done in the short time you been with us, and I must say that the Aincrad Liberation Force-"

**24th floor «Teutoburg Forest»**

* * *

"So it's sergeant Kirito? Eh? Don't you like the sound of that? Sergeant? Couple more promotions and I'll start having to call you sir! haha." Hermes grinned as they moved through the ancient forest. Few steps ahead of them Yuri and Ares, kept an eye out for trouble, while directly behind Kritio a dozen army recruits, freshly recruited from the 1st floor, trailed behind them.

Turning his attention back to the conversation, Kirito smiled politely. "You think it was a good idea bringing those guys here?"

Hermes appearing unsure who Kirito reffered to, gave him a blank face until Kirito pointed towards the group of poorly coordinated army players following them. "Oh you mean the recruits? Personally… I would have settled for something more… experienced. But begger's can't be choosers."

After some silence, Kirito believing that he might as well as tell Hermes about the extra skill that mysteriously appeared in his skill slot, mustered up the courage and spoke to the short player, "Listen Hermes….. there is something I need to tell you."

Hermes bending his head towards Kirtio, flashed a smile at him, "Ah now that you are all big and important sergeant, you have finally seen the light and decided to wear the armor. Good for you."

"What? No, I like my clothes." Kirito replied and instinctively inspected his clothes, before asking his question.

"Listen… it's about an extra skill that I-" But before Kirito could tell Hermes his predicament, he found himself along with the rest of the squad coming to a halt.

Alarmed by the abrupt stop, his hand automatically gripped his sword and he looked around for potential threat. After a moment of searching and scanning he found what appeared to be a small group of army players walking towards them, their gear in such a poor shape that they even lacked the basic guild markings on their armor and shields. Realizing that the group that he saw must be lieutenant Praxidike's and her men, he released his grip on the sword and watched the unidentified players make their approach.

Once the poorly dressed army players came close enough, Ares extended his hand and shook hands with a man who appeared to be the leader of the small group, "You must be lieutenant Praxidike… funny I thought you were a girl."

"What?" Lieutenant Praxidike, clearly offended by what he heard pulled his hand away and stared at Ares appearing surprised and insulted.

Yuri pushing Ares away from Praxidike stepped forward and apologized to the agitated player, "We heard from the Major that you were a women…. sorry for the mix up."

The man sighed heavily, "Seriously? A women? Who told you that?"

From where he stood, Kirito saw Yuri frown for a split second before answering the odd question, "Major Cobert, who else?"

Lieutenant Praxidike upon hearing the answer slapped his head gently in an attempt to chastise himself for his ignorance, "Ah of course! How could I forget? My apologies I was thinking of a different major there for a second… Anyways…. from what I understand we are to take you to wherever you want to go…. so uhh let's get going." The lieutenant stated and without waiting for an answer gestured to his men to join up with their group.

With the group with its reinforcement, appeared quite impressive in Kirito's eyes and it seemed that only a madman would decide to attack them. Observing that a similar conclusion had been reached by the other members of the squad, Kirito relaxed and basked in the feeling of security for the first time since coming to the floor.

Minutes passed by in relative silence and they continued to navigate through the forest. Lieutenant Praxidike, after taking care of some business with his men at the rear of the formation, quickened his pace and joined Hermes and Kirito.

"So whose this guy? Some sort of VIP we are supposed to be escorting?" The lieutenant asked, mistaking Kirito's identity for his lack of army uniform.

Smiling at the lieutenant, Kirito explained, "Hahaha…. nothing like that, I just don't like the uniform."

"Can't disagree with you there…"

Hermes, who normally by now would have joked about the situation, carefully studied Praxidike's face with a confused look painted on his face, "Hey haven't I seen you before somewhere?"

Praxidike bending his head towards Hermes shrugged, "Like in the army?"

"No…. no… not in the army, I mean still in the game but somewhere else."

Praxidike for a moment remained motionless until he seemed to remember something important. Flinching involuntarily, the lieutenant looked away. "You-you must be mistaken, I have a very common face." Immediately the lieutenant slowed his pace and joined his men once more, leaving the two of them with their thoughts.

"Is it just me or do these guys seem suspicious?" Hermes asked, looking at the lieutenant and his men.

"I was thinking the same thing, maybe they- wait! Hold up a sec." Kirito seeing something strange in the corner of his eyes, stopped in his tracks and Hermes gestured the rest of the group to halt.

Focusing his attention near the area where he last saw the strange object from the corner of his eye, Kirito found a player hiding behind a bush, "Hey…. you behind the bush, come out."

"But officer! I haven't done anything wrong I swear!" The bush replied innocently.

Kirito replied by reaching his sword.

After a few seconds of silence, the bush, realizing that it did not want to be sliced sliced, shook violently until an orange player emerged from it. To his surprise Kirito recognized the orange player.

Immediately drawing his sword, he eyed the orange player carefully, who seemed amused at his reaction.

"You…. you… you!" Yuri said, as she too must have recognized the orange player, thereby confirming his belief that the orange player in front of him was indeed the killer they saw on the 27th floor.

Tilting his head in Yuri's direction the orange player smiled, "Yes! Me, me me! Hahahaha! But seriously. I was just watching some pretty birds officer, I haven't done anything wrong." The orange player commented, flashing them with an innocent smile and showed them his two hands in an attempt to convince them of his peaceful intentions.

Kirito finding the confidence of the orange player to be insane, cautiously approached the orange player. "You murdered someone, that's more than enough for you to be sent down to the «Black Iron Castle»."

The orange player placed his hands on his cheek and opened his mouth in feign shock, "I swear that was an accident, you see he tripped and my knife just happened to be slit-"

The orange player glancing at their faces and with a disappointed expression painted on his face sighed loudly, "Okay… fine…. but listen. I hear it's pretty quiet on the 1st floor… You don't mind if I bring my friends do you?"

Without waiting for an answer the orange player nodded and a dozen orange players materialized from thing air, surrounding the army group. Appearing satisfied with the turn of events, the orange player threw away his cloak, and Kirito found himself staring at a player dressed fully in army uniform.

"That's him! That's Orion!" One of the army players recruits shouted out, clutching his weapon nervously.

Waving his hand in the general direction of the voice, Orion grinned, "I must be getting famous if people can recognize me by my handsome face…... But really, enough about me…. what brings you folks to this part of the woods, it isn't exactly safe around these parts, you know with all them oranges running around."

"We are here to bring you in, for murder." Ares said, puffing his chest trying to intimate the orange players around him.

Covering his mouth Orion yawned, and stretched his arms, "That's old news….. Though I must warn you, the kast guys who came to do just that ran away screaming and crying. I didn't have the chance to ask the last group but what will happen if I refuse?"

"We will bring you by force, traitor." Yuri answered, her voice full of contempt and anger. In response Kirito for a split second, saw the Orange player sink into sadness before returning to its original state of cheerfulness.

Orion maintaining his smile simply clapped twice. Kirito taking this act to be a signal of some kind, readied himself for action but to his surprise saw dozen army players simply fall to the ground.

While Kirito tried to figure out what just happened, the rest of the group panicked and lieutenant Praxidike waved his arms wildly,"Retreat! Fall back now!"

But before anyone could contradict the lieutenant's foolish orders, Praxidike clutched his neck and collapsed onto the ground.

Several army players without waiting to be told twice and risk joining the lieutenant , ran and left the group with less than dozen of players to fend off the orange players. Much to his surprise the orange players surrounding them did not lift a finger against the escaping army playesr and continued to focus their attention on those that remained.

"Idiots! Stay!" Ares shouted in vein after the cowards, but his voice had no effect on the escaping players.

Concentrating on the fallen men, Kirito found the situation to be extremely suspicious. All of the players who had fallen to the ground were Lieutenant Praxidike's men and none of them seemed to have suffered any physical injuries that could have caused them become paralyzed.

Orion noticing Kirito's confusion, smiled politely at him. Slowly approaching Lieutenant Praxidike's unmoving body and he gave it a kick, "Show's over… get up."

The corpse groaning in pain picked himself up from the ground. Following the example set by their leader, the rest of the fallen army players, rose up and drew their weapons against Kirito and the remaining army players.

Looking at their bewilderment, Orion feigned a surprised, "Oh no… don't tell me you actually thought he was the lieutenant Praxidike….. They didn't even have the guild symbol drawn on their shields."

"So now what? What's with this elaborate foreplay?" Hermes asked drawing his weapon and nervously eyeing the player who had claimed to be lieutenant Praxidike.

The orange player surprised at Hermes question raised his eyebrow, "You don't know? Really?!"Without receiving an answer from Hermes, Orion shrugged before turning his attention to Yuri with a friendly smile on his face, "Why to see how my sister is doing, of course."

Kirito stopped counting the number of the orange and fake army players, at the news and looked at Yuri. His mind extremely confused at what he had heard, "Yuri? I thought your brother died on the 25th floor."

The female army player with a frown closed her eyes and breathed out. "What do you want?"

"Oh so many things…. but why the long face Yuri? It's been so long since you and I saw each other face to face." The orange player spoke, and tried to approach his sister with open arms. However, Yuri drew her blade and kept the orange player at bay. Exhaling loudly, Orion looked at the blade with disappointment, "To be honest…. I really didn't think my darling sister would be here today….. this 'foreplay' was for either Cobert or Kibaou."

Yuri, who appeared not to amused with seeing her dead brother, spoke to him coldly, "What could you possible want from them?"

"Oh just to have a little talk about the good old days, chop off a few limbs here and there….." Scratching his chin, Orion replied casually but unlike his voice, the orange player seemed to be carefully studying each and every one of them.

"But putting my devious revenge plot aside for a moment….. what should I do with you people….. I don't suppose you would turn around and let me catch up with Yuri?"

"No," Kirito said, "You should surrender…. and come with us. It's the right thing to do."

For a moment Orion snickered, then looked Kirito in the eye. Realizing that he had meant every single word, Orion closed his eyes and sighed, "Kill the idiot first."

* * *

Quotation Edit/Minor Edit: 1/8/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/16/2013


	5. You Can't Catch Me

Sidestepping just in time, Kirito dodged a sword skill and allowed it to pierce the air next to him.

Thrusting his sword forward, Kirito lodged his blade into an orange player's shoulder. Immediately pulling his sword back, he whirled his body around and struck the leg of an army imposter behind him. By the time he looked for his next target, both of his opponents rolled on the ground screaming and clutching their amputated regions in pain.

Stealing a glance at the rest of the group, he saw Yuri jumping recklessly into a cluster of orange players, who under orders not to harm the female player hesitated in striking her. Unfortunately for the orange players, Yuri had no such qualms and her Katana slashed at them mercilessly. Right behind her he could see Hermes and Ares smashing and stabbing their way trying to keep up with her, and even the raw recruits from the 1st floor performed admirably, holding their ground and by ensuring that orange players fallen to the ground stayed that way. Though it was too early to tell, it appeared they were slowly winning against the much larger orange group.

Focusing his mind back into the fight, Kirito evaded a swipe from an enemy player just in time, and returned the favor by smashing the orange player's head with the pummel of his sword and stunning him.

Before the yellow lights rotating around the head of the orange player could disappear, Kirito disarmed his attacker and kicked him down to the ground.

When Kirito took down another orange player with a well placed stirke, Orion's frustrated voice reached his ears, "What am I paying you idiots for! Kill him now!"

"Orion! This was supposed to be an easy job!" Praxidike shouted back, watching in horror at his men being cut down like grass.

"It will be if you get your head out of your ass and do what I paid you for." The orange player angrily replied back and shoved the phony lieutenant into the fight, "Rest of you focus on that player dressed in black! Now!"

But before Kirito could prepare himself for a concentrated attack, Praxidike scowled and yelled at his men, "Screw you Orion, this is not worth it, let's go! Teleport «Ralback»!" Immediately the remaining army imposters, those still capable of running away, chanted after their leader and disappeared.

With dozen players gone within a flash, the remaining orange players sprawling on the ground or looking around with confused at their situation panicked. The latter fleeing via a teleportation crystal or by heading into the woods while the rest threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Kirito turning his attention to Orion, saw the orange player frown at him with contempt, "You! Who do you think you are? Do you know how much planning this little trap took?!" Hastily pulling out a teleport crystal from his belt, the orange player pointed at him with his index finger. "This isn't over funeral clothes! Next time I see you, you and I are going to have a long talk! Teleport «Ralback»!"

But contrary to orange player's expectations, Orion remained on the floor, unsure of why he had not been spirited away to safety, the orange player shouted, "Teleport «Ralback»!? Teleport-"

Eventually, the orange player looked down at his crystal and found a throwing knife stuck into it, rendering the crystal useless. Dropping the crystal, Orion glared at him, "Shit."

"Surrender and come with us peacefully," Kirito replied.

The orange player stared at broken crystal on the ground, before grinning at him, "Of course…... not!" And with that Orion turned around and sprinted away.

Kirito glancing over at the rest of the squad, busy taking care of the remaining orange players made an instant decision and gave chase after the orange player.

* * *

After a few minutes of pursuit, Orion grasping the fact that he was being followed, jumped into the forest and zigzagged his way in an attempt shake his tail.

But Kirito with persistence and superior speed eventually managed to corner the orange player into a dead end, with the edge of the floor on one side, making escape impossible unless the orange player grew wings and learned how to fly.

Looking behind him and at the long drop, Orion dusted his hands. "Well you caught me. I don't suppose you are going to say 'your it' and run?" Studying his face, the orange player shrugged, "No? Oh well…. worth a shot. So why are you chasing me? I was under the impression that my capture was of no great importance."

"I…. I wanted to ask you something," Kirito said, unsure on how to phrase the question he wanted to ask.

"Sorry, straight as an arrow, though thanks for asking." The orange player replied with an apologetic smile, but the smile in his eyes had a mocking quality in them.

"Eww, No… it's about Yuri."

Upon hearing the name, Orion stiffened and his eyes hardened, "Watch what you say or I am going to consider tearing your limbs apart, then laugh as you slowly decompose-"

Trying to ignore the sister complex of the orange player, Kirito furiously waved his arms proclaiming his innocence, "No! Nothing like that! I just wanted to ask why you became an orange player and fought against the army. Is it because of what happened on the 25th floor?"

With a heavy sigh the orange player, his cheerful expression now gone, sat on a nearby rock, "Not exactly…. You see. Once upon a time, there was a brother and a sister who enjoyed playing computer games together. One day the idiotic brother found a game called Sword Art Online and convinced his sister to play the game with him…." Appearing troubled by the memory the orange player continued.

"Once the two of them realized that they were trapped within a game, they tried so…. so very hard to escape….. Eventually, they ended up joining a guild called «MMO Today» or better known as the army these days. At first everything was perfect, everyone worked together and we soon cleared floor after floor, each one cleared slightly faster than the last…. and it seemed we could clear the game by Christmas."

"Until the 25th floor." Kirito offered a guess.

Nodding his head in confirmation the orange player proceeded with his story, "Until the 25th floor…. Tell me. Have you ever lost anyone you knew in the game?"

Kirito shook his head, and Orion looked at him with envy in his eyes, "Then consider yourself lucky. I lost all my friends, everyone I fought and worked alongside….. all gone in a flash."

"Is that why you became an orange? Because you couldn't take it anymore?"

Shaking his head, the orange player reached for his two daggers and pulled himself up from the rock he was sitting on, "Hahaha, no I am mentally sane, thank you very much. The reason for that is much more complicated and to be honest, I was taught not to blab my darkest secret to a random stranger. Now…. it's high time we got back to our roles, you as an ever vigilant army dog and me as an evil orange player."

Kirito while wanting to ask a few more questions, stopped as Orion pulled out his daggers. Observing the orange player's weapons Kirito found it strange that the two daggers orange player carried differed greatly from one another. Orion in his left hand held a small parrying dagger while in his right the orange player wielded an Anelace, a very long dagger that was slightly shorter than a short sword.

But before he could finish studying his opponent's weapons, Orion lunged at him with his dagger glowing brightly with a sword skill Kirito recognized, «Rapid Bite» a dagger orientated skill that propelled its user towards the target. Successfully sidestepping the sword skill, Kirito struck down at the orange player after the latter had passed by him.

To his surprise, Orion without relying upon the game system, blocked his attack with the parrying dagger. Before Kirito could recover from his shock, the orange player came to an immediate stop and thrust his long dagger straight for Kirito's heart, once again without the assistance of the game system.

Moving his sword towards the dagger, Kirito barely managed to parry the attack. Jumping back and increasing the gap between the two of them, Kirito launched a flurry of attacks trying to keep his distance with the orange player and thereby minimizing the damage the short ranged daggers could do while exploiting the longer reach of his blade.

Orion seeing through his plan redoubled his efforts. After a series of relentless assault, the orange player dashed at him closing the distance between the two, Orion's long dagger flashing red and «Fad Edge» a sword skill known for its rapid combination of attack, unleashed itself on Kirito.

Knowing that he could not take the full brunt of the assault, Kirito responded with «Meteor Break», a sword skill that combined his attacks with the aid of his martial art skill.

Feeling their skills violently clash against each other, Kirito much to satisfaction, saw that Orion unable to comprehend the effect of the sword skill used against him become confused.

Exploiting the confusion, Kirito managed to land his sword upon the orange player's shoulder, the strength of the strike pushing the orange player back. However, before Kirito could celebrate his small victory, the long dagger of the orange player at the last possible moment pierced through his defences and scrapped past his neck. Thankful that the attack had landed few inches to the left and turned out to be non fatal, Kirito looked checked his hit points and found them to be dangerously low.

Orion who probably checked upon his own health, backed off and Kirito did the same. With a good distance between each other, the two players scrolled through their inventory looking for a healing potion, while keeping an eye on one another.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" Kirito asked. Moments later he found his healing potion within his inventory and allowed it to materialize in his hands.

"From what I recall…. I am a mad orange player who couldn't handle the death of his squad." Orion replied sarcastically, twisting what Kirito had said a few minute ago.

"No. That doesn't explain everything…. why are you trying to destroy the army." Kirito began to think that it would be possible to talk the orange player into stand down and surrendering if he could just persuade him.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Orion popped the cork on his healing potion, "Destroy the army? Ha! That's rich, is that what they told you when they sent you after me?! 'Orion! He's a disgrace to the guild and must be eliminated.'? Come on, think a little harder….. Why do you think that the army wants me so bad? I doubt it my dashing personality. After all, I am not the only player who left the army turned orange….."

Sipping his healing potion as if it was a tasty beverage the orange player continued, "Tell me, do you have a sister?"

"I do." And for a brief moment his thoughts went to Suguha, and his longing to escape this world to meet up with his family.

Appearing to have not anticipated his answer, Orion asked, "What do you think you will do if your sister was trapped within the game with you."

Kirito after some thought shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, I never thought about it."

"Well it's not a happy thought, especially when you think about the fact that if you don't do anything she will eventually die. So ever since day one, I promised myself that I would see her free… but that's personal motivation."

"Just answer me, why are you doing this? Destroying the army will solve nothing," Kirito demanded.

Letting out a sigh, the orange player waved his index finger, "Tsk tsk, haven't you been listening? My 'evil' goal is to get my sister out of the game, so wouldn't destroying the army be totally unrelated to my plans?"

Looking at the Kirito's confused face, Orion scratched his chin, "Hmm…. I suppose you understand it if I dumb it down a bit."

"Imagine!" The orange player shouted with a hint of theatrics, spreading his arms wide, "What the army could accomplish if they returned to the clearing floors! With its superior numbers, the game would be finished within months instead of years!"

Frowning Kirito wondered about the mental stability of the orange player, "That's it? Couldn't you do this from the within the army? Why resorting to killing?"

Chuckling at his response, Orion tossed the empty healing potion behind him and sent it flying over the edge of the floor, "You could, but that rarely accomplish anything. For instance, do you know what first thing I asked after all my friends were all dead? I asked for us not to stop but to continue to clearing the floors. But no…. they said that too many people had died and it wasn't worth risking anyone's life."

Orion now looked at him with an air of seriousness, the very same that Kirito often saw from Yuri. The close resemblance that emitted from Orion at this point reminded Kirito of the fact that Orion was indeed Yuri's brother.

Unaware of his thoughts, the orange player closed his eyes, before unleashing his fury, "What about everyone that died on the 25th floor?! Was their lives worth nothing!? If violence is what it takes to change the army will then I will gladly drench myself in blood and get the only person that actually matters out of this death trap!"

Shaking his head, Kirito looked at the orange player with pity, "You are wrong, you have the right goal in mind but you are doing it the wrong way."

Orion storing the display of anger he had shown him, the orange player returned to his cheerful state, "And I suppose you have a happy solution that would solve everything? Do tell when you find one….. but for now," Orion pointed his dagger at Kirito, "if you are done asking questions, get out of my way or you are going to be finding yourself on the ground making dirt angels."

"You haven't been trying?" Kirito taunted back.

"Hahaha…. it's a shame it had to came down to this….. But I have places to go, people to meet." Orion answered, readying his dagger to strike.

Seeing no other choice but to fight, Kirito began to calculate his odds and found that while Orion appeared slower compared to him, possessed tremendous experience of fighting against players, not to mention that unlike Kirito, Orion had no qualms about killing him.

Weighing his odds, Kirito knew that if he fought against the orange player once more, he would be unable to rely on the element of surprise with his martial arts. Seeing no other choice, Kirito opened his inventory equipped his spare sword and drew the two swords simultaneously, hoping that it would throw off the orange player.

Orion looked at two swords with puzzlement, but after a moment his facial expression, replaced itself with a determination. Raising his dagger high into the air, the orange player charged at him, "Don't know what kind of extra skill that is but its not going to stop me from freedom!"

Clashing with one another once more, the two of them struck and blocked each other. But unlike his proclamation Orion, who never fought against two blades, reacted to Kirito's attacks sluggishly, trying to determine the attack patterns of the two swords. Slowly but surely Orion began to lose ground. Kirito instead of taking advantage of his situation chose to bid his time, trying to lure his opponent into making a fatal mistake.

Predictably, Orion growing more desperate with each passing minute, unleashed a barrage of attacks that Kirito parried or dodged, and became increasingly aggressive in his attacks. Eventually, after one such attack, Orion overextended and left himself vulnerable. Seizing the opportunity Kirito launched a counter attack with a sword skill «Sword Storm», a ten hit combo attack, and an instant later the relenting series of swipes and thrusts flew towards the orange player.

Orion caught out of position, managed to block only the few initial strikes while the rest landed squarely.

Staggering from the attack Orion struggled to recover, his health dwindling until it stopped just short of being empty.

Watching the orange player stagger backwards, Kirito prepared to deliver the final attack and end the fight. But before he could do so by bringing his sword into the air to destroy Orion's daggers, a female voiced yelled at him, "Don't kill him!" Upon hearing the voice Kirito stopped and found Yuri behind him, out of breath and appearing extremely anxious.

"I wasn't going to kill him." Kirito said, trying to communicate his sincerity. Out of corner his eye he observed Orion continuing to falter towards the end of the floor until the orange player managed to stop right before the edge. Regaining his balance the orange player lifted his head and upon seeing Yuri, his expression softened.

"Ah Yuri…. you came to see me go off again….haha." Orion tried to smile at his sister, but instead winced and clutched his side in agony.

"Why? Why did you leave me?!" Yuri asked, her voice mixture of various emotions.

Orion appearing surprised to hear her words, gasped in pain before he managed a sad smile , "Because…. if I asked you to come with me then you would have followed in my footsteps….. and regret the decision for the rest of your life…. can't let my little sister…. kill people…. you are a good girl."

"But why haven't you responded to my messages?! Why didn't you talk to me for months!? You could have talked to me!"

"If I did….. then I… I wouldn't have been able to do….. what was needed." The sorrow of his voice made Kirito feel slightly at unease, "So…. close… or so I thought…."

"You need to stop. Please! Give up," Yuri begged her brother.

Shaking his head sadly, the orange player glanced behind the edge behind him, "You know I can't do that…."

For a moment Orion just looked at the two of them and after the brief silence his face saddened face changed to that of a player who decided upon a course of action.

Kirito in response eyed the orange player carefully in case Orion decided to attack them in a last ditch attempt.

But contrary to his belief Orion, sheathed his daggers. Then opened his inventory and scrolled through it, looking for something, "I-It can't end here….. my work…. may be delayed… but… not yet finished…."

"Don't try to pull out a teleportation crystal, I'll just destroy it. You are trapped." Kirito said flatly, pointing his sword threateningly.

Noticing his movement, the orange player tilted his head towards Kirito, and gave him a gentle nod, "I have to thank you, whoever you are….. If it weren't for you, I would have attacked Yuri… ha…. that would have been ironic. Still…. If anything happens to her…. I am going to slit your neck ear to ear."

Returning his attention back to his sister, Orion looked at her with mournful expression, "Yuri…. I can't talk any more but I want you to know that… I am proud of you and that I love you…. and…." with a small smile creeping back into his face he added, "don't twirl your hair so much…. you will go bald."

Kirito suddenly understanding what the orange player planned to do, threw down his weapons and sprinted towards the orange player in an attempt grab him. "No! Stop!"

Orion ignoring Kirito, smiled warmly at his sister. Closing his eyes, he took a step back and in an instant later the orange player disappeared. However, right before the orange player vanished, Kirito saw the orange player slam his at his inventory.

"Onii-Chan!" Yuri screamed, but before she could rush towards the edge Kirito grabbed her tightly. After a moment of struggle, he gently laid her down on the ground and carefully walked over to the edge, but found no sign of the orange player. Behind him, he could hear Yuri crying uncontrollably.

* * *

Quotation Fixes: 1/8/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/16/2013


	6. Under An Orange Tree

**«Black Iron Castle****» ****1st Floor**

* * *

Only a few days after the incident, four of them stood in attention in front of Cobert's desk. Though they had succeeded in their mission, Kirito had a gut feeling that Cobert wasn't going to congratulate them for their hard work. While Ares and Hermes kept their mouth shut, one of the recruits blabbed soon after arriving safely back to the base and word quickly spread about Yuri's family tree, that resulted in many unflattering rumors circulating about her within the army. Though Yuri tried to keep her emotions shut and in check, she was clearly upset and the current situation made things only worse.

"Orion is dead, confirmed by the «monument», death by falling," Cobert commented with a smile on his face. Leaning against his chair with his legs on top of the table, he looked at them with a hint of smugness, "It's about dam time we nailed the bastard to the wall, he's been nothing but trouble."

Kirito shook his head in disagreement, unable to believe Cobert's claim. He just knew that no matter what the monument said, the final moments of his encounter with Yuri's brother did not add up. Risking the major's wrath he spoke up, "I don't think he died. It's too strange. He said his plans were far from finished, I do not see how committing suicide would help him accomplish his goals."

Cobert appearing annoyed by the contradiction slammed his desk. "Stupid people don't think that far ahead! The «monument» does not lie son! Private Apate confirmed the death of the orange player precisely when you claimed Orion idiotically tripped and fell to his death!"

"Orion was far from stupid-"

"You made your point, now shut up!"

Cobert, returning his attention to the rest of the group, tapped his desk with an angry expression painted on his face, "Now what to do with the four of you…. I just know that one of you had a hand in helping those pkers… it can't be a coincidence that they knew all our troop movements."

Tilting his head, Cobert lazily pointed towards Yuri, "I am betting that you told the bastard everything….. if not why would you keep your brother a secret? Care to explain yourself Captain? Why were you protecting a murderer?!"

Instead of answering his question, Yuri remained mute, refusing to answer the question. Unfortunately for Yuri, her silence had the effect of further angering Cobert who responded by screaming even louder.

Before Kirito could stop the major, Hermes stepped forward and positioned himself between the major and the rest of the group. "She just lost her brother, show some god dam respect."

Without bothering to reply, Cobert glanced at the short player, his anger shifting to his new target. "Maybe it's you Hermes… oh you would just know all about Orion and his buddies wouldn't you?"

Kirito knowing that the two of them had nothing to do with anything to aid the orange players and disturbed by the major's paranoia protested, "This is ridiculous, those two have-"

"Or… maybe it's you Kirito, everything seems to have started around the time you graced us with your presence." Cobert answered and the two of them stared at each other both sides unwilling to back down.

"With all due respect sir, I think you are wrong." Ares said trying to be diplomatically, "I haven't seen anything suspicious, and I believe that they deserve the benefit of the doubt."

However, even the voice of reason seemed had little effect. Angrily pointing his finger to silence him, the major focused his attention on Ares.

Continuing to tap his finger to express his irritation, the major scowled, "Don't think I forgot about you Ares, if any of these three turns out to be the mole we are after…. your ass is mine."

Exhaling loudly Cobert gritted his teeth, "Now if I had my way, I would have thrown every single one of you scumbags into jail but Thinker's little pet has regretfully informed me that you are to be 'commended' for your heroic efforts….. what a joke."

Pulling his legs from the table, the major stood up and headed for the door. "Well, then I suppose you will all be stuck on the 1st floor until we can investigate and find out which one of you is dirty."

Kirito worried that staying in the first floor might not be the best course of action, especially for you carefully asked. "Can't we do something else?"

Flashing an intriguing look Cobert replied, "Of course, as long as it doesn't involve the army."

"How about the front lines? You could send us there," Kritio suggested.

Appearing none to shocked to hear his response, the major leaned against the door and smiled, "Now… that's a thought. You would be out of my hair…. and who knows you might just die out there."

After few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Cobert raised his index finger, "Alright I'll bite…. but I have one rule. Under no circumstances are you to reveal that you are army."

"What? Why!?" Hermes asked, "You should be trumpeting our return to the front lines!"

Grinding his teeth in anger, Cobert replied, "Because I don't want to deal with those little guilds complaining that someone was killed by an army player. Now get out of my sight. I have a report to make."

* * *

**«Lake Vadimo****»****, ****45th floor, ****Front Line**

A few days after their meeting with Cobert, Kirito enjoyed the warm sunlight on his skin. Looking around him, he saw the entire floor built around a beautiful lake that shimmered brightly with the sun reflecting of the large body of water.

In the few days he had, Kirito using his experience in the upper floors, managed to tutor and train the army players, and in general prepared them to become part of the clearing group.

Initially he expected that training them to be difficult and painfully slow, but the army players quickly accustomed to the life of an average player despite still possessing some of their habits from the army.

"I still feel naked without my armor," Hermes looking disapprovingly at his new purple armor, commented bitterly. Though Kirito believed that the bright set of armor, Hermes wore suited the army player perfectly, he could relate with Herme's dislike of changing his gear.

"That 'is' your armor." Ares commented dryly, reminding his friend of their restrictions, one of which forbade the use of army uniform and to use armor that would allow them to blend in with the general population.

"You know what I mean." Hermes replied, "This armor just doesn't have that effect of making people respect you."

"Since when did people pay respect to you?"

"Shut up. Not all of us have your freakish height that intimidates people," Hermes answered, while continuing to sulk over the loss of his. "Why couldn't I keep my armor? While Kirito gets to wear his dirty, impractical clothes."

Looking at his friend with pity, the giant shot back. "Because his clothes doesn't scream, 'look at me! I am an army player!'."

Giving an annoyed look towards Ares, Hermes muttered quietly "Mark my words... First thing after finishing the boss I am going to go find a blacksmith, put all those fancy customization into the armor and make myself look handsome and dashing-"

Tuning out the conversation behind him, Kirito turned his attention to Yuri, worried about her state of mind. "Feeling better?"

"I am fine…." Yuri answered, with her eyes closed shut.

However, despite her reassurance, to him she seemed so fragile that a single touch would shatter her. Concerned that she might not be able to cope with the situation they will soon be going into, he looked at her anxiously, "Maybe you should stay back at the castle."

"I said I was fine. The last thing I need to do is sit and do nothing." Forcing a frown Yuri tried to chase him away but Kirito shrugged off the glare and tried to comfort her. "I don't know much about him, but he seemed like a good guy….. he had the right idea."

Appearing surprised by his words, Yuri stared at him skeptically, "So you agree with him? You think that army should help the clear the floors?"

Having a strange feeling that he had missed something vital, Kirito chose his next words carefully. "You don't agree with your brother's philosophy?"

"It cost him his life, no idea is worth that much." She answered flatly, and with that they walked in silence. Until Kirito, unhappy with where the conversation ended spoke to her once more, trying to revive the conversation. "So... What was he like?"

Much to his relief, Yuri responded with a small smile, "Everything you saw. He was always too smart for his own good. Always trying to make everything better and maybe that's why he was happy all the time, even when he shouldn't have."

"He always thought he knew a better way to solve a problem." Slowly her smile widened, "In fact….. He once tried to make a musket."

Raising his eyebrow, Kirito wondered how such a thing could be accomplished. "He tried to make a gun in the game? But there wouldn't be any system assist, how could it do any damage?"

"He reasoned that since people could fall to their death." Yuri winced for an instant upon hearing her own words, but after a brief pause she recovered and continued, "He thought that a large enough object could cause damage by tricking the game system into thinking that the target fell and crashed into something solid."

His mind driven by his curiosity began calculating the possibility of such an experiment succeeding, "Did he ever test his theory?"

Unable to hide her grin, she laughed softly, the sadness in her eyes disappearing, "Yup, and…. It-it blew up in his hands as soon as he tried to fire it! Of course, after that little experiment he wised up and tried to play the game like other people."

Finished with the story she smiled at him, silently thanking him. Smiling back Kirito directed their conversation into idle chatter and the two of them began to chat idly and soon Kirito told Yuri about Suguha and Yuri in turn shared more stories of her own.

* * *

After sometime navigating their way through the dungeon, the small group finally arrived at their destination and spotted «Munchkin» the floor boss, standing in front of them. Next to the boss a large group of players were busy organizing themselves in preparation for the battle.

Remembering the message he had received from the reconnaissance group, Kirito pointed at the tiny boss «Munchkin», that resembled a garden gnome, "That's the floor boss and he is supposed to be extremely agile. We are supposed to-"

"Wait! How do you know all this?" Ares asked, "We haven't even fought him yet."

With a sheepish smile he answered, "I used to… well I guess I still am, part of the clearing group." Looking at their shocked expression, Kirito tried to explain. But before he could elaborate, he heard a familiar voice yell at him across the room. Turning towards the direction of the voice, he spotted Klein waving his hand in greetings.

"Kirito! It's been a while! Where were you for the last few floors?! Wait what?! Is that people I see following you?!" Klein shouted in surprise. Quickly jogging towards him Klein made his way to the group.

Unsure on how to tell his friend about his new guild, Kirito scratched his head. "Well I was walking through the forest on the 27th floor and I found them under-"

"Under an orange tree." Hermes said, winking at Kirito.

Klein appearing confused at the mention of a non existent orange tree, nodded nonetheless. Before Klein could ask any probing questions, Kirito gesturing towards Klein, "This is Klein from the guild «Fuurinkazan», despite his thuggish face he's a good…."

Wondering why Klein hasn't jumped into the conversation to defend himself, Kirito turned around and found his friend staring at Yuri, his mouth wide open.

"H-Hello! I'm just a guy c-c-called Klein! Twenty-three! I-I see you use a k-katana too." Klein blurted out, and gave her a small bow.

Instead of acting indifferent to the red haired player, Yuri much to his surprise stuttered back, "P-Pleasure to meet you as well," her face turning crimson.

Klein surprised by her reaction continued, but with slightly more confidence behind his voice this time. "H-How would you like to go on a date with me?!"

Kirito tried to nudge Klein to stop but, Klein too excited with his meeting ignored Kirito's silent warning.

Perceiving the red haired player to be a threat, Ares stepped forward and blocked Klein's advance, "Back off pretty boy, Captain's-"

Stopping in mid sentence, Ares froze. Realizing that he had almost told them about the army, coughing loudly, the giant finished his threat prematurely, "Real smooth Ares…. real smooth." Hermes said, snickering from a safe distance.

Scratching his head and pretending like nothing had happened, Ares offered his hand to Klein, "Sorry about that, that was impolite of me. Name's Lieu- Ares."

Shaking the hand out of habit, Klein looked at the giant with a blank expression, "Nice to meet you Lieuares?"

Sighing Hermes covered his face with both his hands, "Kirito…. take your friend away before Ares blabs about something he shouldn't….."

Seeing no other choice, Kirito pulled Klein away from the rest of the squad.

"Haha. They are an interesting bunch, Kirito!" Klein commented, "I bet you have some stories to tell after partying up with those guys."

Continuing to drag his friend away, Kirito smiled. "You wouldn't believe half of the stuff I can tell you."

Once Kirito thought they had placed sufficient distance between themselves and the squad, he relaxed his grip and Klein appearing worried whispered quietly to him, "You are not kidnapped are Kirito! They are not holding you hostage are they!? If they are then-"

Waving his hand in dismissal, Kirito laughed, "Nah nothing like that."

Breathing a sigh of relief, the red haired player brightened, "So! Who's the girl?! Is she seeing anyone?"

"Her name's Yuri, I don't think she is seeing anyone, who knows maybe you should ask her?" Kirito suggested while grinning mischievously.

Glancing in Yuri's direction, Klein commented. "Don't worry I will, Maybe I will- wait a second." Returning his gaze back to Kirtio, the red haired player noticed the two blades hanging on his back, "Two swords?! How are you carrying around two swords?"

"It's from an extra skill I unlocked a few days ago," he confessed.

"What are the conditions?" Klein said, while he tried to hold two Katana and failed.

"I don't know it just appeared one day."

Klein studied Kirito intensely for a moment before exhaling loudly, clearly disappointed. "Well…. if you figure it out, don't hesitate to tell me."

"Don't worry you will be the first one to know, who knows maybe you will be juggling with two swords by tomorrow."

"Now that would be awesome…." Stealing a glance back at the raid group, Klein waved to his guild members waiting impatiently for him to return, "Well looks like the raid is about to start. I'll talk to you later."

Kirito did the same and rushed back to join his group. Just as he made it back, a sharp voice pierced through the air, "Everyone into position now!" Looking at the direction of the voice Kirito saw Asuna, the sub leader of KoB.

"Somebody woke up in the wrong side of the bed today." Ares mused as they got into their pre designated formation, his eyes fixated on the sub leader.

"That's Asuna, she is-"

"That'd be Asuna-sama." A voice interrupted Kirito, looking behind him Kirito saw a player dressed in plate armor, with red stripes running down his armor, indicating his membership with KoB.

The KoB member noticing the three confused army players frowned, "She is the sub leader of KoB. The «Flash»?! How do you people not know her?"

"Kob?" Ares asked, puzzled by the acronym, "Flash?"

Shaking his head, the guild player looked at the four of them arrogantly, "Knights of the Blood….. Are all solo players this stupid?"

Hermes smiling at the newcomer gave him slight nod, "Only the handsome ones…. So, who might you be?"

For an instant it appeared that the stranger recognized Hermes, but moments later his expression of recognition changed into that of an arrogant elitist. Assuming a tone of superiority, the stranger answered back, "I am Kuradeel, one of the core members of the KoB, the strongest guild in the game."

"Way to be modest….. but you are forgetting about the army." Ares commented his voice pull of pride.

Kuradeel glancing at the giant with anger spat on the ground, "Don't tell me about those cowards being the best, the army haven't shown their cowardly faces here since the 25th floor."

For a split second, Kirito saw the three army players responding in their own way, Hermes involuntarily flinched, Yuri gave a cold stare and Ares took a threatening step towards Kuradeel.

Seeing their reaction, Kuradeel smiled, "I guess some idiots still think that the army will save them." Without speaking another word Kuradeel hastily escaped and Kirito silently glared after the KoB player, feeling insulted by the snide remark.

* * *

**«Black Iron Castle» 1st Floor**

"He was dressed fully in black, and had a black sword?"

"Yes sir." Cobert replied, standing at attention in front of desk.

Kibaou twiddled his thumb impatiently and eyed the empty wine bottle in front of him, "Where is he now?"

"I've sent him and the idiots who are responsible for him to the front line. My guess is that they are trying to redeem themselves, but I think they will be dead soon."

"Oh I have you now you beater….." Kibaou quietly whispered to himself, before returning his attention back to Cobert, "Anyone currently in contact with him? Does he have any friends outside the guild?"

"Only his squad sir and he appeared to be solo player when he first joined, so I believe he has no close friends outside of the guild," Cobert answered.

Frowning at the mention of the word squad, Kibaou fidgeted. "I see…. What about his squad, are they disposable?"

"Yes sir, every single one of them, in fact three of them….. are our prime suspects for a mole planted by the orange players," Cobert replied with a grin.

"Will anyone miss them once they are gone?"

"No sir, Captain Yuri had a brother named Orion but-"

"Orion… Orion…. I think I heard that name before… I trust that he has been taken care of?"

Cobert gave a short nod, "Yes sir, «monument» reported his death just a few days ago. Do you want me to bring the four of them back to the castle?"

"Yes…. We will kick them out of the guild, publicly humiliate the beater and make him pay for what he has done…" Trailing of mid sentence, Kibaou suddenly quieted down.

After a moment of silence, Kibaou with a sinister look shook his head, "No….no that's too good for him. Don't bring them in… we will just watch them for now."

"Yes… this just might work in our favor," Kibaou muttered to himself before addressing the other player. "Major. Gather your loyal supporters…. the ones that will do everything I say and won't ask questions afterwards. Then get them into fighting shape." Finished with the conversation, Kibaou pointed towards the door, silently ending the meeting.

"Of course sir, I'll get to it right away," Cobert obediently answered, giving Kibaou a salute before leaving the room.

With the major gone, Kibaou walked up to the window and stared through the glass with a smile, "I wonder if you can cheat death beater….."

* * *

Quotation Fixes: 1/8/2013

Small Edits: 1/9~10/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/16/2013


	7. Christmas Eve

**35th floor, «Town of Mishe» December 24, 2023.**

"There were thousands of them…. all of them charging at me and Ares, brandishing their overcompensating weapons as they screamed bloody murder." Hermes spoke with a dramatic voice as he told his rather exaggerated tale to Klein and the rest of the «Fuurinkazan» guild who listened to the story with eagerly, drinking in every word, perhaps even believing the whole story. It had been weeks since their first encounter within the 45th floor, and the army members had somehow managed to completely blend in with the rest of the player population.

The short player, flashing a smile pointed towards him, "Kirito! You want to tell them what happened next?"

Kirito responded by waving his hand, politely declining, though he had tried to keep up with the Herme's story he had no idea what the story was about. Shrugging his shoulder the short player returned his attention to the captive audience continued his tale of valour.

"After I effortlessly dispatched an orange player foolish enough to come straight for me, I noticed that Ares had fallen to the ground by the enemy's treacherous attack. Forgetting about self preservation I fearlessly jumped in front of my fallen comrade and valiantly held off the orange players while my friends made their timely escape-"

From the corner of his eye, Kirito saw Yuri leave the tavern, mumbling a few words to the enchanted players. He quickly went after her and exited the Inn. Outside he found her leaning against a wooden post, staring at the streets packed with players twirling her hair, an action that he now recognized to be a sign of distress.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"No… nothing's wrong, I am just a little concerned that it's been over a month and we still didn't receive any word from the «Army»."

"They are probably glad that we are out of their hair. I wouldn't worry too much about it." Kirito replied, reassuring Yuri.

Kirito tilted his head back towards the inn, "So what's with Hermes's story? I never heard that one before. When did all that happen?"

Appearing amused at his ignorance, Yuri smiled, "Believe it or not I think he's talking about the incident at the 1st floor."

"You mean the little skirmish we had right after I joined?"

"The very same." Yuri replied, clearly enjoying his reaction as he realized just how far the story had been doctored.

As he tried to figure out just how much of the story had been changed, he noticed Yuri jealously observing the busy streets filled with cheerful and happy players enjoying the seasonal event. "Can you believe it? This is the second Christmas we had in this game…. but unlike the first one, everyone else seems to be enjoying it."

"People get used to anything, even this death game," Kirito answered.

With a heavy sigh Yuri nodded in agreement, "Maybe they do." Pushing herself away from the wooden post, she looked at him straight in the eye, "Kirito, can I ask you a question?"

Slightly worried on what she could possibly ask him, Kirito mentally prepared himself for the worst. Finding himself to be ready, he nodded, "Sure go ahead."

"You think Klein likes me?" Yuri asked, her face turning slightly crimson.

"..."

"What?! How? When?!" Kirito blurted out, trying to understand the question she asked him.

Confused at the random question, he instinctively looked around to see if Hermes or Ares hiding nearby trying to pull a prank on him, but found no sign of the two army players.

Yuri taking his reaction negatively bowed her head down and stared at the ground, trying to hide her embarrassment by pretending to study the floor. Squeaking like a mouse she asked, "Do you think I sho-should ask him out?"

"I don't know, he seems to like you, if that helps." Kirito spoke quickly. Clutching his head, Kirito tried to make sense of all this, "I didn't even know you liked him."

Yuri, with her face becoming brighter answered back, "I-I-I never said I liked him, he just seems a bit-."

But before Yuri could explain, Hermes burst through the inn door with a jug of beverage in his hands.

Smiling at the two players, the short player shouted, "Ho ho ho merry-…"

"What is this?! What are you kids doing!?" Hermes asked after seeing Yuri's red face whilehis eyes wondered to the Mistletoe hanging over them. Smirking the army player opened his inventory, "Hold that pose, let me get out my recording-"

Yuri, her face glowing extremely brightly, drew her Katana and slammed it into Hermes, sending the poor player flying towards a wooden wall. Fortunately for Hermes, since the Crime Prevention Code ensured that he survived. Gasping from the shock of being launched into the air, Hermes struggled to stand, "Gah…. I-I just wanted to tell you that I….. just heard from Klein about a rare event boss."

"Klein?!" Yuri shouted out, failing to hide her eagerness.

Kirito while noting her reaction and planned to ask Klein how he felt the next time he saw the red haired player, was inriuged by the news of Hermes carried. Helping the short player to his feet, he asked, " What rare event boss?!"

Still breathing unevenly from the short flight Hermes answered, "Ya, the boss is supposed to drop an item that can bring a dead player back to life."

"Bring back to life? I can bring him back to life!? Are you positive about this?!" Yuri demanded, her eyes beginning to harden and the color on her face returning to normal.

"That's what he said." Hermes replied, failing to notice the rapid change.

Yuri with a hint of harshness in her voice yelled at them, "Grab Ares and let's go….. NOW!"

**35th floor, «Lost Forest»**

* * *

If he had gone in by himself, Kirito figured that he would have arrived at the location of the boss several minutes ago by ignoring the small mobs that would have gotten in his way. However with the army players and «Fuurinkazan» players in tow, they were forced to fight their way through every mob, slowing their progress through the dungeon to a crawl.

"How do you know which one of these tree is the Fir tree we are after, not that I doubt your excellent knowledge in identifying video game trees." Klein asked, half jokingly.

A few months ago, Kirito while training on the 35th floor, inside a random transfer dungeon called the «Lost Forest», he had found a giant curved tree. At the time he paid little attention to it believing it to be nothing more than an interesting landmark. However, thinking back he remembered that the giant tree was a fir tree, the very species of tree that the special mob «Nicholas the Renegade» was rumored to spawn underneath. In his mind, logic dictated that the special tree he saw would be the location where «Nicholas the Renegade» would be found.

"For starters…." Kirito pointed at a nearby Fir tree, "Look at the cones… see how they grow up right? Pine trees have cones that hang downwards. Also here…." Tearing a branch off the tree, Kirito handed it to his friend. "Smell it."

Klein taking the branch looked at him suspiciously before sniffing it. Appearing surprised by the scent, Klein sniffed it once , "Mhm… smells like Christmas… or the smell that smells like Christmas."

Kirito smiled, "Exactly…. The fir tree has a distinctive scent that reminds us of Christmas."

Taking a look behind him, Kirito spotted Yuri urging Herms and Ares bringing up the rear of the group, "Hurry up! If we slow down any more we won't be able to make it to the boss in time for the event!"

"We can't move that fast! I am all muscle and he's just too short to walk very fast." Ares complained dredging his foot through the snow.

Annoyed by the comment about his height, Hermes shot back, "What muscle?! You're all fat!" But before the giant could respond, the sound of snow being crunched behind them interrupted him. Alarmed by the unnatural sound, Kirito turned to the source of the noise and found a large group of players closing up on them.

"It looks like we were followed Klein," Kirito said drawing his blades.

The player who appeared to be the leader of the large group screamed at them, "Hey stop right there! The boss is ours!"

Klein replied tactful, "Listen we don't have to fight, we can share the boss and let whoever gets the drop keep it."

"We don't need your help. We are from the «Divine Dragons Alliance». If you know what's good for you, you will turn around and go crawl into whatever hole you came out of." The DDA leader arrogantly commented.

Yuri appearing agitated by the turn of events, seemed like she would have no problem using violence against the new comers.

Knowing that the getting to the boss was the most important thing for her right now, and fearing that the situation may lead to bloodshed Kirito tried to project confidence, "Don't worry about us Yuri, take Ares and Hermes and go after the-

Shaking her head, Yuri interrupted him, "No, it's too risky. The boss will have to wait."

"Are you sure? I can handle these guys with Klein." In response, Yuri shook her head once more and readied her sword. Her mind made up and it appeared that the situation would end violently.

"Thanks for asking me for my opinion before volunteering us to one of your schemes Kirito." Klein remarked sarcastically, "But four of you should go… we can probably hold them off," Klein said as the rest of «Fuurinkazan» voiced their agreement.

Smiling like an idiot, the red haired player added, "Especially for a lady like you Yuri. Leave this to us we and go find the boss."

Instead of getting angry at Klein, Yuri blushed at his remark. "I-I'll be fine!"

Kirito while slightly worried how this was going to turn out for all of them , flashed a smile. "Getting the item would be somewhat pointless if I have to use the item on you Klein."

The red haired player answered back with a slight nod and drew his Katana, preparing himself for combat, and the rest of his guild followed suit. "That's true. You can't do anything if you're dead."

Perhaps disappointed by their downbeat attitude Hermes stepped forward with a stupid grin on his face, "Relax guys, I got this." Spreading his arms widely, the short player addressed the DDA players, "I am from the «Aincrad Liberation Force», or to you people the «Army». So! Stand down now and I won't throw you idiots into prison for obstructing official «Army» business!"

"Right….. and I was born yesterday… you don't look like no «Army»." The DDA leader replied with an annoyed face. "Where's your uniform?! Eh?"

Waving his arms frantically, the army player seemed excited to have been asked the question, "Behold! My ultimate transformation! I have been waiting to get back into these for weeks!"

Without delay the short player threw off his clothes with a click of a button, leaving him only with his boxers. Unfortunately for Hermes at that exact moment when he undressed himself from his warm clothing, the wind suddenly changed and a blizzard flew straight towards his him mercilessly.

Chattering his teeth, the near buck naked player hastily equipped his equipment by piece by piece. "Ah shi-i-it, its so-so c-cold. How-how is it that Mahou Shoujo* c-can transform into their clothes in-instantly but I have to put my clothes on one at a time." Hermes commented, and pulled up his pants.

"Maybe … just maybe… it's because you are an idiot." Ares answered covering his face with his hand, embarrassed by what he saw. Meanwhile every other player just stared at the idiot in front of them, who decided to remove his clothes in a freezing temperature.

Hermes finally finished dressing, furiously rubbed his hands together, trying to create a little bit of friction to warm himself, "There, now can you see that I am a proud member of the Aincrad Liberation Force. Now if you don't want your sorry asses thrown in jail I suggest that you all head back home and leave the boss clearing to skilled players like us."

But contrary to what Hermes must have expected one of the DDA players shouted back, "Screw you, I bet you made that armor based off the ones from ones you saw from «Army»."

Nodding his head in agreement, Hermes pointed towards Yuri, "Very well! Yuri! Strip down your clothes and change into your gear!"

Before anyone could respond or see if she would indeed change her clothes, Yuri clocked Hermes strong enough to throw him off balance and send Hermes crashing into the snow. Without waiting for Hermes to mumble an apologize, she delivered the heavy end of her boot straight towards the downed player's face in an efficient yet brutal manner.

Shaking his head, the DDA leader exhaled loudly, "This is a waste of time….. let's go boys! Take them down!" Moments later the DDA members clashed against them and Kirito found himself in the middle of the fight, fending off his attackers.

* * *

Though the DDA members far outnumbered them, it soon became apparent that they had little experience fighting against players who fought back. Not to mention that Kirito, quite experienced in fighting against human players found it relatively easy to disarm or otherwise incapacitate the bullies who were used to intimidation rather than killing their opponents like the orange players.

After a lengthy fight, the DDA players realizing that they were fighting a losing battle ran, leaving Kirito and his group behind. Sheathing his swords Kirito relaxed, but upon spotting Yuri quietly sulking, he remembered the event boss and quickly checked his clock.

Unfortunately it seemed that the fight had cost them too much precious time. They had been delayed so much that even if they had rushed to the event location without stopping to catch their breath, the boss would have despawned.

Moving towards Yuri with the bad news, he saw the disappointed look on her face, betraying her thoughts that indicated she probably came to a similar conclusion regarding their lack of time. Unsure how to talk to her, Kirito tried to reassure her, "Don't worry too much about it, I don't think the an item like that would exist."

Sighing heavily Yuri kicked the snow in front of her with frustration, "Maybe... no. You are probably right. Deep down I guess I knew." Laughing softly she added, "But I really wanted to believe that it was real."

Unable to say anything else, he left Yuri to her own thoughts and looked around to make sure that no one was hiding nearby, waiting to attack them. However, in his search much to his surprise, Kirito found the leader of the DDA group being held by Hermes with his dagger pointed at the terrified player's throat. Stepping closer to the two players, he could hear the horrified player begging, "Don-don't kill me."

"What happened to 'we are big bad guild'?" Hermes questioned the other player, giving his victim a toothy smile.

The short player noticing Kirito approaching them sheathed his dagger and gave a small nod, silently handing off the cowed player to him.

The DDA player seeing Kirito, tried to back away, but Kirito grabbed him by the collars. The frightened player, flailed his arms around helplessly, "Wait! We didn't mean no harm! An orange player told us about an event boss and that all we needed to do was scare you a little if we wanted to have the boss for ourselves."

Hearing those words a theory materialized in his head, shaking the horrified player Kirito demanded, "Who was the orange player? Was he tall? Brown hairs?! Blue eyes!?" Without giving the frightened player time to answer he pointed towards Yuri." Did the orange player look like her in any way!?"

Scared out of his wits, the nervous player confessed, "No-no, it was a not a man it-it was a women. Please! Don't send me to down to the castle, I won't do this again, I-I'll make sure the rest of the guild doesn't mess with other players again!"

Kirito disappointed that his suspicion was unfounded, released the DDA leader to the ground, "Get out of here." Without waiting for anything else to happen, the rattled player ran back towards the town screaming away like a frightened child.

* * *

**35th Floor, Deep inside the Lost Forest.**

"Did you know that the bringing in the Christmas tree into a home was actually a symbolic gesture of preserving life through the winters during the ancient times?"

Anaideia snorted, amused by the random fact, "Time?"

"Patience, patience…. he will be here soon," the orange player replied, his eyes wondering towards her weapon, studying the halberd with fascination. "Interesting choice of weapon Ann, when did you have the time to dig that up?"

Before she could tell him to mind his own business, the night sky above them darkened and an instant later a large black shadow crash landed in front of the Fir tree where the two of them stood.

After the fog of snow that was formed by the impact disappeared, a humanoid shaped monster appeared, with abnormally long arms and a hatchet in one hand. In his other hand the monster held a bag full of items, its bright red eyes fixated on the duo.

Her friend, idiotically ignoring the obvious danger, stepped forward and stared into the crimson eyes of «Nicholas the Renegade» and smiled.

"Hello Santa…. I've been a very, very naughty child."

* * *

* Mahou shoujo or Majokko, known for their instant transformation, think of sailor moon or any other magical girl anime/manga/film and their instant transformation.

**A/N**  
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Quotation Fixes 1/9/2013

Small Fixes: 1/10/2013

Serious Editing: 1/10/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/17/2013


	8. That Drink Isn't Poisoned

**48th Floor Inside the dungeon «Pharsalus».**

* * *

"That's what Klein said?" Yuri whispered.

After the incident on the 35th floor during Christmas Eve, Kirito was forced to explain to Klein just exactly what he had been doing. Though Klein showed his disappointment for not having been told the truth to begin with, he congratulated Kirito on joining a guild and ending his solo life.

"Yup, he said nothing. He didn't seem to mind too much that you are from the army." He whispered back and ended the conversation.

Kirito focusing his attention back to Hermes, found the short player gesturing wildly in an attempt to plead his innocence to Cobert, "Listen I have a perfectly good excuse on why I had to strip my clothes in public and be branded as a pervert!"

Though Cobert had yet to reveal why he stood in front of them, if Kirito had to guess, it seemed that his arrival probably had something to do with Hermes's public declaration of his allegiance and the effect it had on the player community, which resulted in mixed reactions being expressed from the general community.

Some players like Klein were only too happy to see that at least some of the army had decided to come back. On the other end of the spectrum many had become skeptical and worried that the army would bully them into submission. Kirito reasoned that this could be the only reason why Cobert had summoned the four of them inside the dungeon, probably to see if he could see the situation for himself and to find the solution that would allow him to deal with this public relations problem effectively.

However, instead of getting angry Cobert uttered the three words, Kirito never expected to hear from the major, "I understand completely."

"Wha-" Hermes with his mouth open in amazement just stood there, unable to speak. Kirito had the urge to do the same but he felt suspicious by the major's reaction. The Cobert he knew would never be so forgiving or reasonable, but before he could gather his wits and raise his suspicion, Cobert continued, "And I must apologize for the mistake we had on our end, it turns out you that four of you were not the mole we were looking for."

For a moment silence fell upon them, until Hermes recovering from his shock asked, "Does that mean you caught whoever was responsible for supplying the information?"

Cobert chose not to reply, silently suggesting that the mole was still at large. Instead, after the slight pause Cobert dropped a bombshell on them, "The army will now be publicly participating in defeating floor bosses."

Kirito couldn't believe what the words coming out of the major's mouth and judging by the shocked expression on his companions they agreed with him.

Hermes shook his head in disbelief, "Major Cobert, what the hell happened down there while we were gone? Why the sudden interest? Was there a revolution? Evolution? Did somebody fart?"

Cobert winced at the comment and for a split second, it seemed that the major would explode, but Cobert's face betrayed no hint of anger. Instead, pacing in front of them, Cobert explained in a gentle tone of voice, "It's Lieutenant Colonel now…. and in case you haven't noticed lieutenant, the Aincrad Liberation Force has always been fighting for the freedom of all players since the beginning of this death trap."

Though doubting how the army could change its mind in such a short time, Kirito decided that if things had indeed turned out the way Cobert claimed they had, then there would be little reason to argue with him. Nodding his head in agreement, Kirito spoke, "That's great. Once we find the location of the floor boss we will call in the other clearing guilds and have them join us."

"No need, sergeant we shall be tackling the floor boss by ourselves," Cobert replied and gestured to the men behind him, who were armed to the teeth and standing at attention, wearing matte black armor that gave them a slightly intimidating appearance. " We have more than enough men to take on the floor boss, and this victory shall be our gift to the people of this game!"

Kirito, concerned how Cobert could be so confident, pointed out a small flaw in his plan. "But we still don't know where the boss is."

Cobert smiled warmly at him, "Once again, thanks to our superior manpower, our scouts have already managed to uncover the location of the boss."

Kirito unsettled by the smile, asked, "So what do you want with us? It seems like everything is ready."

Putting his hand behind his back, Cobert answered proudly, "We believe that the experience the four of you had in dealing with the previous bosses will prove to be invaluable, not to mention that you are all more than qualified for this assignment…. therefore you shall all be accompanying us."

Frowning Hermes whispered to Ares, "Am I hearing this right? Did the old ass just ask for help and call us invaluable? Have I gone insane?"

The giant looking nervously at the army players in front of them, for once agreed with his friend, "I am afraid so."

* * *

Shortly after their conversation the group began to head towards the direction of the dungeon and soon arrived in front of the room where the boss supposedly resided. Kirito took a peek inside and spotted the floor boss, a gigantic «Minotaur» lugging around huge executioner's axe behind his back and a deadly mace in his hand. According information that the army players had gathered, the Minotaur had two phases in which the boss' weapons changed from his mace to the executioner's axe once his health had dropped below 50%.

Cobert silently signaled to his men and without a word the dark army players quietly fanned out into the room. Kirito and the three army players separated from each other, each one of them linking up with a separate group as previously discussed and planned. Kirito joining up with the group he was assigned to, found it a little suspicious that his group had positioned itself further from their only exit than discussed in the plan.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable at being separated from his squad who would stand by him no matter what happened and having a unsettling gut feeling, his mind began to produce various conspiracy theories that suggested that the whole situation was a some sort of a trap.

Though he wanted to question Cobert, Kirito shook his head instead, pushing his troubling thoughts away. The questions he had could wait and he could not afford to be distracted by such thoughts during the upcoming battle.

Cobert seeing all of his men in their respective position, nodded with approval. Seeing their signal, they charged in unison towards the horned monster.

* * *

After a few minutes into the fight it became clear that the everything proceeded without without a hitch. In fact the fight progressed so well that, Kirito began to wonder how quickly the game could be cleared if the army decided to combine their strengths with the clearing guilds. Before anyone could catch him thinking about the future in the middle of an important battle, he dragged his focus back into the fight.

With his attention back to the battle, Kirito noticed that the boss had now just a little more than half of its health remaining, which meant that the «Minotaur» would soon be entering its second phase and be utilizing the gigantic axe behind his back.

At that exact moment the boss turned its back on Kirito, trying to swing his mace at Ares directly across from Kirito. Seeing the opening created by his friend, Kirito dashed towards the boss and slashed his sword at the boss a several times before he the boss looked towards him and came after him.

Just as he suspected, his attacks dropped the boss's health slightly below 50% and the boss entered the second phase of the battle by «Minotaur» dropping his mace to the ground and reaching for his executioner's axe.

The bull now armed with his fearsome weapon, slowly approached Kirito and raised the axe, getting ready to smash him. Knowing that he would have to keep the boss occupied while others attacked the boss, Kirito readied himself to parry or dodge the inevitable attack. But even before the boss came close enough to reach him, Kirito much to his surprise felt himself being roughly pushed from behind and fell to the ground onto his back. Looking over his shoulder he found an army player smiling at him.

Before he could pick himself up, the smiling player placed a stun on him and upon delivering the blow, the army player raised his visor and allowed Kirtio to identify the smiling player to be Kibaou. "Bye bye beater…."

Without bothering to say anything else to Kirito, Kibaou shouted to the rest of the army players. "It's time! Teleport «Starting City»!" With a cold smile on his face Kibaou disappeared and seconds later the rest of the army group evaporated after their leader. The «Minotaur» appearing not too concerned with the disappearance of so many players, simply raised his axe , that glowed brightly with its sword skill.

Seeing that he had been tricked and left to die, Kirito felt his mind filled with dread and he chose to close his eyes.

But after several moments of dreadful silence, Kirito did not feel the pain of an axe landing on him. Feeling curious at what could be causing the delay, Kirito slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar figure standing in front of him parrying the boss's attack with her Katana.

"Get up!" The familiar figure said.

Glad to see that he wasn't dead yet, Kirito tried to move his arms but found his body still stunned from Kibaou's sword skill. With a panicked voice he cried out, "I can't!"

Rooted to the floor he watched helplessly Yuri. Who unable to switch with him was forced to take another of boss's attack. An attack that struck her blade and broke it on impact, draining a good chunk of her health in the process. The AI, coming to the conclusion that his opponent was close to death, raised the executioner's axe high into the air to finish her.

Yuri watching the axe fall towards her tossed her useless weapon aside and opened her inventory, desperately trying to find another sword. But from his vantage point he knew that she would not have the time to do so. Seeing no other choice, Kirito mumbled an apologize and with all his might kicked Yuri in the back, sending her tumbling forward unceremoniously and getting her out of the Minotaur's axe.

With the Yuri out of the way, Kirito prepared to block the final attack that was now coming straight for him. Though the stun had been removed, he knew that he could not dodge the blow. Instead he raised both his blades and crossing them together, hoping that they would be enough for him to survive. Stealing a glance, he saw Yuri stare at him, her eyes full of horror.

But an instant before the executioner's axe reached him, Kirito heard a loud curse, followed by a dozen throwing knives appearing from thin air, all of them landing simultaneously on the Minotaur's giant axe. The combined impact from the tiny blades changing the angle of the attack just enough so that the axe missed Kirito and landed above his head only inches away. The boss losing his balance from the attack fell directly into Kirito, his foul breath blowing into Kirito face.

Feeling that he would be sick if he breathed in the nasty fumes any longer, Kirito unleashed his sword «Starburst Stream», a sixteen-hit combo attack, directly into the monster's face. Thanks to the close proximity between the boss's head and his body, every attack landed and scored a critical hit. The boss trying to pull both himself and his axe out of the ground, screamed in agony as each attack landed. After his 14th hit, the creature let out a small moan, his health bar empty Collapsed on top of Kirito, the dead body of the boss pressing Kirito into the ground.

Moments later the Minotaur shattered into fragments and Kirito feeling like he had become part of the floor continued to lay on his back, unable to believe what he had done. But before he could figure out what just happened, he was lifted to his feet by Ares who stared at him like he was a ghost. "How the hell did you survive?! I thought you were a goner there for a second."

Before he could answer, Yuri looked at him furiously, "Don't EVER do that again, you could have been killed."

Surprised by her reaction he defended his actions, "I had to. You didn't have enough time to take out another sword."

"I had more than enough time," She spat out, "What were you going to do if the boss hadn't missed? How were you going to block an attack lying on the ground?! You are not a solo player anymore, you need to trust us!"

Kirito feeling rather annoyed stared at her and Yuri in turn stared at him right back. After a few seconds of uneasy silence, Hermes tried to defuse the situation. "Both of you relax….. doesn't matter who was right or wrong…. what matters is that we just kicked the living shit out of that thing."

Tearing himself away from his anger, he returned his attention back to the room, "Did you see the people who threw those knives?"

Hermes appeared puzzled by his question, "What knives? Who?"

"The knives!" Without explaining what he saw. Kirito searched the room, expecting to see the people who had thrown the daggers that saved him. But to his surprise found no one except four of them and a staircase that lead to the next floor.

* * *

**1st floor, «Starting City», In front of «Black Iron Castle».**

"You sure... you have to do this?" Anaideia asked twirling her hair.

"Don't do that Ann, you'll go bald and of course I have to do this…. at least more than you." Mendax replied by pounding his armor, "Otherwise you would be the one in the suit."

Crossing her arms together, Anaideia gave Mendax a disapproving look, "It's not too late. Find another way?"

"Of course we can. Have you ever considered hair implant- ughhh" Mendax cried out in pain, falling to the ground after being kicked in the groin. Lying on the floor he explained, "Yes…. there are probably easier ways to do this. But that's no fun."

Maintaining her annoyed expression, Anaideia shook her head, "This is not a joke, you are walking into the army headquarters, Kibaou….. he is definitely going to try and eventually kill you."

Flashing a smile Mendax sprang back to his feet, "Please…. I am too brilliant to fail and besides if Kibaou wasn't such an ass who would try to kill me then this whole thing would be rather pointless." Opening his inventory Mendax pulled out a standard army issued helmet, "If I don't make it back, tell PoH and his two lovers that they shouldn't-"

Slapping Mendax back in the head, Anaideia scowled. "Just go."

"Ow" Mendax rubbing the wounded area gave her his best puppy eyes before putting on the army helmet that covered his facial characteristics.

After a few minutes of jogging in peace, he finally arrived at his destination. Whistling a cheerful tone he slowed down to a walking pace and confidently wandered past he front entrance of the «Black Iron Castle» as the guards once spotting their fellow army player, waved him through without so much as a glance.

Taking a stroll through the «Black Iron Castle» with confidence, Mendax headed directly towards the Kibaou's office. Once in the vicinity of the office he took a moment and scrolled through his inventory and made sure that he had the necessary items that would be needed for the important meeting.

Finding everything in order he put on a charming face and began his approach to Kibaou's office until the door suddenly opened and spat two players out, one of whom Mendax recognized much to his surprise.

Slowly creeping towards the door, he could hear their argument. The blonde female player being carried away shouted angrily into the room, "This isn't over! Once I tell Thinker about this you are finished!" Mendax seeing the female player couldn't resist smiling with fond old memories coming back to him.

In contrast to the angry voice of the female voice, the voice inside the room answered codly, "Haha…. good luck with that…. You think he's going to believe you? I have dozens witnesses that claim otherwise. Get her out of here Cobert."

After making sure that the female player was escorted away. Mendax, ignoring the two guards by the door, knocked politely before entering the room.

Inside Kibaou sat behind a desk, appearing extremely irritated, next to the grumpy army player a small mountain of empty bottles littered the landscape. Kibaou upon noticing the smiling intruder stared angrily at him, perhaps trying to vent his frustration on him.

Mendax, ignoring the glare opened his inventory and placed an expensive wine on the desk. Kibaou seeing the bottle brightened for a moment before becoming suspicious.

"Where did you get this?"

"I made it myself Sir!" Mendax replied, feeling proud of his personal work.

"Is that so? Well…. it seems you have a gift but where's Dionysus?"

Mendax opening the bottle of wine he had brought maintained his professional smile. "Corporal Dionysus is feeling a bit under the weather sir! I am just taking his place for today."

Grunting in disapproval Kibaou muttered quietly, "If he thinks he can bail out on work…. then he is sorely mistaken….." Turning his attention back to Mendax, he tapped away at the table impatiently, "Your name?"

"Private Mendax sir!" Mendax replied. Straightening his body he gave his best salute, trying to look professional.

"Mendax huh? I think I heard your name somewhere…." For a split second Mendax spotted a hint of recognition on Kibaou's face, and his own hands reached for his dagger. Fortunately, the suspicion on Kibaou's face disappeared moments later and changed into that of arrogance, and Mendax mentally sighed with relief. Pointing to the seat across from him, Kibaou smiled, "Well, regardless take a seat."

"I don't know if that is appropriate sir!" He answered back calmly, while his mind wondered why the bastard in front of him smiled.

Irritated by his refusal, Kibaou slammed the desk in an effort to look intimidating. However, to Mendax the intimidating act reminded him of an adorably turtle throwing a fit. Pointing to the chair once more, Kibaou's face had turned slightly crimson, his anger building up. "Shut up, sit down and pour a glass for me and one of yourself."

Hesitantly Mendax sat down on the chair across the desk, but pushed his glass away. "I don't drink sir!"

"Stop shouting…. you are giving me a headache…. as for your drinking problem, I don't give a rat's ass," Kibaou replied. Pouring the wine into both cups, Kibaou handed him one of them.

Taking the glass reluctantly, he frowned.

Seeing his hesitation, Kibaou smiled, "Go on drink, that's an order."

Having no other choice, Mendax downed the drink in one gulp, the intoxicating taste of the drink tingling throughout his body as it travelled down his throat.

Kibaou happy with what he saw, picked up his own glass. "Good, just wanted to make sure it wasn't poisoned, haha." Kibaou remarked and swirled his drink, the dark fluid within the glass forming a small whirlpool. "A man of my station can never be too careful... once caught an assassin this way. He thought he could poison my drink….. Big mistake." With a smug smile, Kibaou took a sip from the glass and the rich flavour of the wine made its way down his body, brightening Kibaou's face.

Watching Kibaou take the sip, Mendax couldn't help himself and grinned.

Kibaou noticing his grin raised his eyebrow, "What are you smiling at?"

"I am just smiling at the irony of the situation," Mendax answered truthfully.

"What irony?!" Immediately after finishing the sentence, Kibaou slumped into his seat, his mind losing control of his muscles and Kibaou's head smashed into the desk, spilling the drink in his hand across the desk.

"That irony. Tell me? Does that make me better than the amateur that came before me eh?" The assassin, dropping all pretense of the vigilant soldier he pretended to be poured himself another drink. Smiling at his captive, Mendax leaned back on seat. "Didn't your mother tell you that it's rude to fall asleep in front of others?"

Kibaou struggling to move but the poison immobilized the army player, "How….. I made sure you drank first…."

"Maybe it's because as a child I drank gallons of poison. You know build an early immune system," Mendax replied cheerfully. Reaching across the table and pulling Kibaou by his head. He unceremoniously threw the paralyzed body against the chair, so that the helpless player could look him in the eye. Swirling his drink he added, "Or I figured that you were going to be paranoid enough to make me drink first so I just used an antidote crystal beforehand…. but who can say what really happened." Shrugging his shoulder, Mendax pulled out a recording crystal.

"Why are you here?" Kibaou asked.

Without bothering to answer the question, Mendax pressed the record button on the crystal. Clearing his throat, the assassin looking directly into the crystal with a determined expression.

"I know that you ordered the platoon to be pulled back on the 48th floor, abandoning some army players, so that they could be killed 'accidentally'. You won't get away with this! I'll inform Thinker myself."

"Who are you really?!"

Feigning a shocked expression Mendax sipped the poisoned drink once more, drinking the beverage as if it were a regular drink, "I am a little disappointed that you can't recognize me, after all we did meet a few times last year…."

Sighing heavily Mendax added. "It's Private Mendax, I just told you a minute ago. Perhaps you should consider writing down my name."

Predictably, Kibaou despite his current predicament frowned and spoke with arrogance, "Well Mendax. You are not going to leave this room alive."

Mendax satisfied by what he heard stopped the recording and left the crystal on the table, "No more questions your honor. The persecution rests."

Confused by the intruder, Kibaou screamed at him, "That's it?! I can just claim that you forced me to say that! I have dozens of witnesses who will vouch for my innocence! You got nothing against me! You think you can leave this place alive?!"

With a cold smile and an eye to match it, the intruder took another sip from the poisoned beverage, "I don't plan on it my crippled friend."

Kibaou unable to move his body simply stared at his intruder with a dumb look on his face, "What?"

Scratching his chin, Mendax maintained his cold expression, "Or at least not in the sense you are thinking of. Consider yourself lucky, if I had bit more free time on my hands, I would have personally locked you up in a nice remote cabin and made your insignificant life as miserable as possible until you screamed to my merry tune…. but due to lack of time and budget cuts…. we will just have to suffice with all the nasty stuff I can do with the time we have together…" Cracking a warm smile, Mendax stretched his legs, "Our time together may be short but it will be special."

"You are enjoying this aren't you sick fuck," Kibaou said, spitting on Mendax's face.

Brushing the saliva off his face, he poured the rest of the wine into his glass then threw the empty bottle into Kibaou's face, that exploded upon impact. Taking another sip Mendax answered, "Of course I am, why else would I bother with such lengthy foreplay?"

Perhaps realizing that he might soon be dead or worse, sweat began to form Kibaou's forehead, "Who sent you!? Was it the beater sent you to do this?!"

"Funeral clothes? Hahahahaha!" Laughing uncontrollably Mendax finally stopped and took a moment to compose himself, draining the remaining drops of his poisoned drink, he placed the empty glass next to the recording crystal. "Please…. I wouldn't give him a bandage even if he was bleeding to death in front of me."

"If it wasn't him, then it must be Yuri! She must have sent you!" At the mention of the name, Mendax winced and refused to comment. Kibaou mistaking his silence as the answer to his question vibrated with anger, "That bic-"

But before Kibaou could finish his sentence, Mendax pressed his dagger against Kibaou's neck. "Finish that word and our conversation will be finished….. In rather unfortunate circumstances… with you dying on the floor and with me giving you a stern look for using such fowl language."

Kibaou managed a weak smile, "Like that's going to happen…You can't kill me, we are inside a city."

Chuckling at his victim, Mendax pulled his dagger away, "Kill you?! I could kill you an instant! But fortunately for you, killing won't solve anything as you'll just be replaced by someone who thinks a lot like you in a couple days….. and I just simply cannot be bothered to visit here on weekly bases…. So no, I don't plan on killing you, just destroying everything you build, won't that be fun? Watching helplessly while everything you built is crushed? Eh? At least you are not dead! hahaha!"

Laughing merrily, Mendax pulled out Kibaou's sword and placed it on the paralyzed player's hand then sent a duel request to the paralyzed player. Taking control of Kibaou's limp hand, Mendax accepted the duel.

The two of them waited in silence as the clock counted down. But even after the duel began the assassin remained seated, smiling at Kibaou. Kibaou who must have felt the poison slowly leaving his body, mocked at his supposed killer, "You idiot, don't you know how to kill someone with a duel? Once the poison wears of you are dead!"

"Well aren't you a cheeky bastard…. I just wanted to see your face as the end drew near."

"What end?! I thought you weren't going to kill me!" Kibaou answered confidently, and Mendax could see that the poison had begun to wear off.

Shrugging his shoulder, Mendax stood up and headed towards the door, "Relax, I keep my promises."

"Then this is pointless, as soon as this poison wears off I am going to call the guards and you will be finished!"

"Let me save you the trouble," Mendax replied. Pulling out a teleportation crystal he softly whispered the magic words that would teleport him out of the room. After making sure that parts of his body began to disappear, Mendax pounded furiously against the door, "AHHHHHHHHH H-HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME! SAAAVE ME! NOOOO!"

With a sheepish smile on his face, Mendax turned around winked. Moments later just as Mendax finished evaporated into thin air, the door burst open and several guards poured into the room, ready to deal with any intruder. But to their surprise the only player they saw was Kibaou, holding a sword in his hand and with the words «Winner Kibaou, Match Time one minute and ten seconds» floating on top of his head.

"Holy shit." The Sergeant of the Guard muttered eyeing the system window.

Kibaou rose from his seat, his sword still in hand, "No! This is not what it looks like! There was an assassin! The only reason I won is because he teleported out of the castle! He said his name was Mendax! Find him now!"

Before anyone could react to the situation the recording crystal lying on top of Kibaou's desk began playing and Mendax's voice filled the room, "I know that you ordered the platoon to be pulled back on the 48th floor, leaving some army players who you didn't like to be abandoned during the boss fight so that they could be killed 'accidentally'… you won't get away with this-"

Shocked by what they heard, the army player remained rooted to the ground, Kibaou tried to reach for the crystal knowing his response to Mendax's accusation. But he was a second too late as one of the army players snatched the crystal away and Kibaou heard hear his own voice through the crystal, "Well Mendax…. You are not going to leave this room alive."

Panicking, Kibaou waved his sword around, "It-it's not what it looks like! He poisoned me with his wine!

"He seems to be drinking it fine." One of the army players remarked, seeing Mendax drinking the wine in the recording.

"NO! He used an antidote crystal! Find Mendax! He's still alive! Check the «Monument» if you don't believe me!"

"You have an answer for everything don't you." The sergeant with doubtful look tapped his communication crystal and sent a call to the «Monument of Life» and asked about the status of Private Mendax. Only moments after he asked his question regarding the certain mysterious player, the crystal replied quietly and the sergeant turned pale.

"The «Monument» says that Private Mendax was just killed moments ago."

Kibaou unable to understand how this had happened, screamed and brandished his sword threathingly at the army players surrounding him, "NO! I didn't kill him! I tried to kill the beater on the 48th floor but not him!"

Realizing what he had just admitted to, Kibaou lost his grip on the sword and slumped into the seat, defeated.

The sergeant looked at Kibaou with disgust, "I can't believe what I am hearing….. Kibaou you are under arrest for the murder of an army player and god knows what else."

* * *

**A/N**

If you are wondering about the identity of the dashingly handsome gentlemen, who has now become the poster boy for this story, then you are wondering about the right things. At first I thought he was a level 99 army player with green light bulbs stuck to his helmet. (Turns out I was wrong.)

Quotation Fixes: 1/9/2013

Small Fixes: 1/11/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/17/2013


	9. Marital Problems

**35th floor, «The Forest of Wandering»**

* * *

"GAHHHH WHERE ARE WE! Gandalf said not to leave the trail! Where's the trail KIRITO! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!" Grabbing his helmet, Hermes rocked himself back and forth on the ground.

Shaking his head Kirito opened his map and tried to find their current location. "It's the forest of wandering, people are supposed to get lost."

After a few moments of silence, Hermes finally calmed down and returned to his normal self, "Yuri's still mad you know, ever going to kiss and make up?"

"No," Ever since the incident at the 48th floor the atmosphere between the two of them was icy. Consequently, when Kirito found a guild leader in the gate plaza at the front lines asking anyone he saw to avenge his guild, Kirito was only too eager at the chance to get away from it all.

Sadly for him, Hermes stating that two heads would be better than one in tracking down orange players insisted that he came along and everything seemed to go well until they got lost within «The Forest of Wandering».

Kicking a nearby tree in frustration, Hermes changed the topic, "So what makes you think this «Titan's Hand» is in the 35th floor? «Silver Flag» was attacked on the 38th floor, we are three floors lower."

"I heard from an information broker that the leader of the orange guild was last spotted here, a female player with red hair."

Appearing amused, Hermes began to trail off into one of his tales, "You know I once dated and then married a red head….."

"How did it turn out?" Kirito asked, mostly trying to distract the army player before Hermes decided to have another mental breakdown.

Giving Kirito a sheepish smile, the short player explained, "I was rich and young! Not to mention quite a bit stupid. After a small argument, like all good stories, my beautiful rose colored dream ended when my wife emptied out my inventory and made a run for it….. After that I ended up joining the army."

"Because you were broke and needed a job?"

"Ehhhh... I wouldn't put exactly like that." Waving his hand dismissively, Hermes continued, "Anywho, the moral of this story is that Kirito, marriage has a potential to be a ticking time bomb that will explode, especially when two people disagree on things."

Feeling slightly intrigued, Kirito smiled, "Oh? What did you argue about?"

"So... many things, from what to eat, where to farm for gear, anything that you could possible think of."

"I see. Do you two still talk to each other?"

Snorting at his remark, Hermes smiled sinisterly, "If I still kept contact with her I would have found a way to shove her into prison for robbing me blind."

"I-I don't think you can be thrown in jail for that." Kirito replied, wondering if the army player would indeed carry out his threat if he ever saw his wife again.

"Hey! She used me….. I thought she was my one true-"

Raising his hand, Kirito interrupted his friend, "Wait you hear that?"

Letting out a small sigh, Hermes looked at him with doubt. "Is this one of those I swear I saw those flying knives saved my life talk?"

"No! Listen! Someone's in trouble."

Looking at him with suspicion Hermes mocked him. "What's that Kirito? Timmy fell down a well?"

"It sounds like someone's fighting." Kirito pointing to a deeper part of the forest began sprinting towards the direction of the disturbance, "That way! Let's go! He might need our help!"

"Or we could ask for directions….." Hermes muttered before running after him, his armor clinking loudly.

Kirito, leaving behind his friend rushed forward towards the source of the noise and spotted a young girl and a small dragon fighting for their lives against several «Drunk Apes», a type of monster that relied upon brute strength to defeat their opponents.

Though she should have been able to handle these mobs with ease, the female player seemed to have been gripped in fear and failed to deal with the monsters in a calm and efficient manner. Before he could reach the player in distress, one of the apes swung its club at her. It appeared that the blow would be fatal until a little dragon, that Kirito assumed was her familiar, threw itself in the path of the attack and block it in the process.

Unfortunately for the brave little dragon, it could not withstand the strength of the attack and exploded into polygons. The girl seeing her familiar die before her eyes, screamed in anger and foolishly charged towards the mob. Unwilling to let the player die, Kirito drew his sword and slashed his way past the mobs, until every single one of them was dead.

Sheathing his sword, Kirito turned around and found the girl rooted to the ground, staring at him. Kirito, trying to show that he meant no harm took a step forward but the girl took a step back in response, her eyes filled with fear.

At that moment Hermes burst through the bushes, and the little girl relaxed recognizing the army uniform. Sinking down to the ground, she cried and clutched the sky-blue feather in her hands, "Please... don't leave me alone... Pina..."

Kirito, kneeling next to the crying girl asked, "Did that feather drop from your «Familiar»?"

The female player nodded and Kirito smiled trying to reassure the little girl, "Then you got nothing to worry about. You can revive her."

Looking at him with surprise, she asked. "Really?!"

Before he could explain the little girl hugged him, until she realized what she had done. Settling down, she waited to hear what he had to say.

"It's something that was discovered not too long ago, but there's a dungeon in the northern region of the forty-seventh floor called «The Hill of Memories». There is a flower that blooms on the top of a sky garden capable of reviving familiars."

"The forty-seventh floor... I'll work hard to raise my level. Someday I'll be able to..."

"Or we can just take you there tomorrow." Kirito suggested with a smile.

"That would be great! But…. Why are you doing this?" The little girl asked, suspicious at his generosity.

Hermes winking in a slightly creepy manner answered, "We are the army! It's our duty to help little girls in distress~!"

The little girl looked at Hermes with worried expression and before she could run away from the highly suspicious army player, Kirito intervened, "Don't worry he doesn't bite."

* * *

**35th floor, town of «Mishe»**

"Your name is Silica?" Hermes asked, "And you said your dragon's name was Fina? Tina?"

Silica nodded in response to the first question but before she could answer the second question, the three of them were approached by a group of players.

One of them, a fairly tall player who appeared to be a leader of some sort, looked down upon the two army players, sizing them up, "You're a two are new, so I am going to cut you some slack. But you shouldn't cut in line. We've had our eyes on Silica for quite a while now."

Roughly pushing the larger player away, Hermes gave him a polite smile, "Official army business…. Back off pedophile, unless you want to see just how pretty you are in prison."

Their faces turning pale at the mention of prison, the players who surrounded them quickly scattered.

Looking at Hermes with a concerned face, Silica whispered to Kirito, "He doesn't really mean that what he is saying right?"

Before he could whisper back, Hermes sighed loudly, "We should have left this job to the local garrison, they would have gotten to it eventually…." Looking at Silica, his face brightened a little, "Alright... I am going to go talk to the local garrison, ask if they saw anything… see you two back at the inn."

"What job?" Silica asked.

Hermes dismissed the question with a wave of his hand, "Oh catching some criminals, nothing too interesting."

Soon Hermes disappeared through the crowd heading towards the general direction of local army headquarters, Kirito and Silica travelled towards the floor's inn. But before they could get far, they were approached yet again, this time by a female spear wielder with a bright red hair in wild curls.

"Oh, if it isn't Silica?" The spear wielder called out. Silica appearing annoyed by the other player stopped in her tracks.

"Ho~, you somehow managed to get out of the forest. That's a relief." Though the words sounded like they were well intentioned, they felt sarcastic to Kirito. Studying the spear user, he discreetly pulled out a small picture, given to him by the leader of the «Silver Flag» to identify the criminals who had ambushed them. Comparing the female player in front of him and the one in the picture, he found them to be the same person.

Suppressing his urge to arrest the female player here and now, Kirito knew that the arrest would mean that the rest of the «Titan's Hand» guild would be alerted and scatter to the winds. Instead Kirito decided to bid his time and tried to figure out a way to bring the entire guild into the open where he could take care of them. Returning his attention back to the conversation, he listened attentively to Rosalia snidely commenting to Silica.

"Oh? What happened to that lizard?"

The little girl bit her lip, trying to repressing her anger. Kirito knew that since it was impossible for a player to place familiars into one's inventory, Rosalia probably knew that Pina had died and was simply using her supposed ignorance to taunt the poor girl.

"Oh… no…. 'it' didn't make it?"

Silica glaring at Rosalia, exploded in rage, "She's dead! But! I'm going to revive Pina! By getting a revival item in the «Hill of Memories»! "

Rosalia, who had been smiling with great satisfaction until this point, widened her eyes and gave a low whistle, "Ho, so you're going to the «Hill of Memories»? But can you get through it at your level?"

Recognizing the interest painted on Rosalia's face, it seemed to him that Rosalia was more than just intrigued by their plan. Stepping forward he chose to speak arrogantly, in an attempt to anger Rosalia. "She can. It's not that hard of a dungeon anyway."

Rosalia tilted her towards his direction and briefly studied him before scoffing, "You're another one that fell for her? You don't look strong at all."

"Let's go."Giving her a cold smile, he pulled Silica and walked away from the red haired player.

Rosalia's laughing voice echoed behind them, "Well, good luck."

* * *

**35th floor, «Weathercock Tavern»**

After they had eaten their bread and stew, with some cheesecake for dessert, Kirito and Silica decided to turn in early in preparation for their trip to the forty-seventh floor tomorrow. The two went upstairs to the second floor.

The room that Kirito had rented was next to Silica's and from there they bid each other good night. Kirito entering his room, placed his clothes away into his inventory and pulled out a «Mirage Sphere» on the table containing all the necessary information about the 47th floor.

Leaving the «Mirage Sphere» on the table, he opened his window and began typing a rather lengthy message to Ares, informing him about his encounter with the Rosalia and the potential danger they might face once they headed out to the 47th floor. Before he could send the message, a knock on the door interrupted him. Curious at whom it could be, Kirito opened the door and found Silica standing in front of the door.

"Is something wrong?"

After a small pause, the little girl appearing flustered replied, "Well, that err… Ah, I wanted to know more about the forty-seventh floor!"

Seeing no reason not to explain about the dungeon, Kirito took a step back and gestured her into the room, "Come on in, Hermes should be here in a couple minutes."

Once she was in his room, Kirito found Silica staring at the «Mirage Sphere» he had placed on the table with interest. Activating the item, Kirito began pointing out useful information regarding the 48th floor and his companion watched the sphere with fascination.

Just as he was about to explain the various types of monsters that inhabited the floor, Kirito suddenly felt like he was being watched. Jumping into action, he rushed towards the door and flung it open. From the corner of his eyes he spotted a shadowy figure disappearing down the stairs. Giving chase, Kirito followed after the figure down the stairs, until he crashed into Hermes on his way up to the second floor with a tray of soup and in the process spilling the stew he was holding.

An instant later the high temperature of the soup registered into the army player's nerves and Hermes screamed in both agony and anger as the hot soup stained his army uniform. Without looking at who had caused the spill, he angrily shouted, "Watch where you are going!"

"Sorry…."

Hermes recognizing the voice looked up and sighed, "It's you huh…. shit... there goes the soup, what were you thinking? Trying to run me down?"

"Someone was listening to our conversation, did you see the guy who ran down the stairs before me?"

"Ya but he was wearing some cloak, couldn't see his face and unlike you….. he didn't smash into me..." Hermes replied while conveying his disapproval through his facial expressions.

Staring at his stained uniform the army player frowned. "Tell me that you have some good news?"

"Yes, I do... made contact with the «Titan's Hand»."

Hermes paying little attention to the conversation, opened his inventory and began wiping his stained clothes with a piece of cloth,"Good… so you got them under arrest? We can head back up now?"

Scratching his head Kirito, slightly tilted his head towards Silica, poking her head out of the room puzzled at the commotion outside. "Not exactly… but I have an idea."

* * *

**47th floor «Hill of Memories»**

Though they had some eventful time making through the dungeon, nothing dangerous had hindered their progress and it seemed that the «Titan's Hand» would not be making an appearance after all.

Still they had not gotten their hands on the resurrection item and if the orange guild planned to attack it would definitely be after they had retrieved the item, not before.

Slowly climbing the hill they finally arrived at their destination, the sky garden, a remote part of the dungeon that was surrounded by the most exotic flowers. In the middle of the garden a small white stone lay among the flowers. Approaching the stone cautiously, Kirito found a small flower growing out of the rock. Once Silica reached for the flower, it blossomed and radiated brightly and the moment she touched the flower the stem of the flower broke, leaving the flower in her hands. Opening the information window, the flower revealed its name to be the «Pneuma's Flower».

Kirito leaning in towards Silica commented, "Now you just have to drop a droplet of water in the flower onto the heart item. But there are a lot of strong monsters here, so it would be better to do it after we get back to the village."

Though Kirito believed that the use of the teleportation crystal would have been best in their current situation for the familiar and her master, he suppressed his urge to tell Silica his true opinion.

After all this trip was also a lure that Rosalia and the rest of the «Titan's Hand» would not be able to resist. Trying to maintain a calm face, Kirito began heading back towards the town portal with Hermes and Silica.

For some time the three of them travelled back the way they had came from without a hitch. However, once they arrived at the bridge they had crossed only a few hours ago, Kirito felt something was wrong. Feeling a bit cautious, he scanned the area in front of him and spotted something out of the ordinary across the bridge. Stopping in his tracks Kirito turned around and gave Hermes the silent look that they had agreed upon.

The army player replied by putting his finger over his mouth and gently tugging Silic away from the bridge while Kirito drew his sword.

"I can see you, don't bother hiding."

Few moments later, Rosalia appeared. "Your friends too," Kirito said.

In response a dozen players emerged from their hiding spot and joined Rosalia in the open. Every one of them with an orange cursors over their heads, all except for one player, who Kirito identified to be the one listening to their conversation in the inn yesterday.

Hermes putting Silica safely behind a tree, shouted from the sidelines, "Go Kirito! Show them your ridiculous strength while I hide behind a girl like a coward."

"Wait…. who is it that you have behind you." Rosalia surprised by the voice, squinted across the bridge, until she recognnized the player. "Hermes…. you bastard."

"Ah…. hello Rosalia! Good to know that you are still using my old nickname." The army player cheerfully commented from a distance.

Kirito looked over his shoulder at the short player, "You know her?"

"My second ex wife…. she's the one who emptied out my inventory," Hermes answered.

"You had a second ex wife? Just how many times were you married?"

"Four times… Twice to the same women," Hermes replied, "If anyone asks I love my current wife dearly."

Appearing agitated by their private conversation, Rosalia smashed the pummel of her spear hard into the ground for a dramtic effect."Enough! Attack! He's just one person he should be a pushover with this many people!"

"Kirito-san... it's impossible to win, run!" Silica shouted desperately as the orange players charged at Kirito. Drawing their weapons, the bandits and raced against each other stomping across the bridge, while screaming their battle cry. "Dieee!"

But in his eyes the bandits seemed sloppy and slow compared to the orange players he fought against. However, despite their weakness, Kirito did not feel pity for the weak players charging at him. In his mind their weakness did not justify their acts of robbery and murder.

Raising his sword, he slashed his sword strong enough to disable his attackers, just short of killing them. After several well placed strikes, all of the orange players were on the ground sprawling in pain or on their knees begging for their life.

Rosalia seeing her guild members crying in agony cursed and drew out a teleport crystal from her hip. Raising the crystal high up into the air, she shouted, "Teleport-"

But even before she could finish her sentence, the air in front of her vibrated for a split second and Kirito slapped the crystal out of her hands, then grabbed Rosalia by her collar and dragged her back towards the bridge.

"Le-Let me go! What are you trying to do you bastard!?" She shouted at him.

Staring at the red haired player, he smiled, "You are under arrest for the murders against the members of the «Silver Flag»."

Without waiting for a response, Kirito threw Rosalia towards the group of bandits.

Rummaging through his pouch he took out a corridor crystal and addressed the subdued group. "You will all now be taking a trip to prison within the Black Iron Castle." Inputting the necssary commands, Kirito watched the crystal in his hand shatter and create a blue whirlpool of light.

The orange players seeing no other choice walked into the portal voluntarily and the other green player of the «Titan's Hand», bowed his head in defeat before doing the same.

But even when all her comrades had disappeared, Rosalia sat with her legs folded and looked up him with defiance.

"Well? Try to force me if you want. But remember…. if you hurt me you'll become an orange..."

Kirito grabbed her collar before she even finished talking, "I don't need to hurt you. All I have to do is throw you into the portal!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"If it gets too much out of control, I'll turn orange… dear..." Hermes commented dryly and Rosalia resigned herself to her fate moments before Kirito threw her head first into the corridor.

Kirito seeing the last of the criminals vanish through the corridor, he dusted his hands. "Well that takes care of that. Let's go and revive Pina."

Exhaling loudly, Hermes walked up towards the portal, "You two kids have fun... I'll deal with things on the other end, can't have those jailers surprised because a random group of orange players just appeared."

Before Hermes could disappear, Kirito called out to his friend, "Hermes."

The army player stopped and turned around, "What? Miss me already?"

Kirito looking at the army player, asked the question that had been inside his mind since the encounter. "Were you an orange player?"

With slight hesitation the army player replied before disappearing through the portal, "Yes."

* * *

Quotation Fixes: 1/09/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/18/2013


	10. Darkness Blade

**57th level, «Marten»**

* * *

The sun radiated brightly and Kirito drifted in out of consciousness, while the gentle breeze ensured that the temperature remained perfect. Suddenly feeling the warmth of the sun leaving him, Kirito lazily opened his eyes and found Asuna, the sub-leader of the KoB, staring down at him with a frown on her face.

"What do you think you are doing? Sleeping in middle of nowhere, shouldn't you be training with your guild?"

"I ditched them for a bit, the weather is just too perfect… it called to me." Ever since the incident at the 48th floor and Kibaou's subsequent arrest, and his where the army's sub leader was found guilty of committing murder, the army had changed its attitude by publicly announcing that they would be returning to clearing floors.

With Kibaou branded as a crazy psychopath and many of his supporters, who in the past advocated self strengthening of the guild over that of clearing the game, now actively denounced their former leader in a desperate attempt the save themselves.

Consequently, without any opposition there had been a steady increase of army players actively participating in clearing the floors, a number of which had now grown to such a degree that its size rivaled that of the entire clearing group put together. Even though most of the army player were not yet strong enough to participate in clearing the boss itself, it would only be a matter of time.

Returning his thought back to the beautiful player standing in front of him he patted the ground next to him. "They'll be fine. Why don't you sit down and take a nap? It feels soooo good." Kirito said, half expecting the female player to walk away.

But to his surprise, Asuna joined him on the grassy hill by lying down next to him staring at the moving clouds. "You know I appreciate what you've done. I don't know how you did it but it's good to have the army fighting with us again."

After a moment of silence, Kirito while studying a particularly fascinating shaped cloud responded. "It wasn't me, I just did my part." It was the honest truth, while many might consider his actions being responsible for bringing back the army to the clearing group, he doubted it. If anything the credit went to the poor private who died exposing Kibaou. For several minutes Kirito watched players walk by, some of whom appearing amused by sight of the two players lying on a grassy hill doing nothing. Tilting his head towards his companion he found her sleeping soundly, unable to do anything else and feeling responsible for getting her to fall into sleep in the first place, he silently watched over the sleeping player.

After several hours of guard duty, the chestnut hair next to him stirred.

"Sleep well?" he said.

Asuna realizing what had happened, blushed. "You-you should have waked me."

Shrugging his shoulders, Kirito smirked, "I don't think I could have. You were sleeping like a baby…. and it seemed like you could have used a bit of rest."

"...One meal."

"What?"

"A single meal. I'll buy you one meal then we call it even."

Delighted at the perspective of having a free meal, Kirito dusted the pieces of grass that stuck to his clothing. "Great! I heard that a NPC restaurant on this floor serves some delicious meals."

When the two of them entered the town of «Marten», Kirito saw people running towards the northern part of the plaza in a hurry. Feeling curious Kirito looked towards the plaza and spotted a player dangling from a rope tied to the second floor of the church. At first, the sight was so ridiculous that Kirito thought it to be a prank of some sort, since it was impossible for a player to die from suffocation.

However, upon closer inspection Kirito noticed that the hanging player had a short black spear delivering the constant «Pierce DoT» effect rapidly draining the terrified player's health.

Rushing towards the dying man with Asuna, he shouted out, "PULL IT OUT NOW!"

The horrified player upon hearing his advice tried to remove the spear but failed as either the spear must have been embedded too deeply into his body or because he was too gripped in fear to focus his strength and pull the weapon out.

But in the end the reason for his failure did not matter. Immediately after his futile attempt to save himself the dying player screamed in agony until it was cut short by his body exploding into glittering fragments. In response to his death, the spectators below screamed in horror.

Kirito seeing the death immediately looked for the other player who had participated in the duel.

During his search Kirito found and roared at a group of confused army players with their mouths wide open. "Find the system window that shows the winner of the duel!"

Upon hearing his command, the army players burst into action by fanning out and looking for the system window. Leaving the army players to their task, Kirito faced and addressed the spectators. "Anyone saw how this happened? If you saw anything out of the ordinary or knew the victim then please step forward now!"

The large crowd of player, most of them who must have arrived at the scene of the crime in its last moments began to disperse, each one of them trying to forget what they had just witnessed. A few seconds later crowd finally dispersed a sole player, a female player with curly deep-blue hair, remained standing in front of them with a frightened expression. When he tried to approach her, the girl involuntarily took a step back. Giving Kirito a disapproving look, Asuna walked towards the female player and spoke with a gentle tone of voice.

"Sorry to ask you about it after seeing something like that but your name is?"

"My name is Yolko I...I...I'm a friend of the person who was just died. We agreed to come here to have a meal today, but we got lost here...and...and then..."

Shocked by the death of her friend in such a tragic way, it seemed that Yolko couldn't continue on as she tried to keep her emotions reined in.

Asuna gently patted Yolko's trembling shoulders and brought her into the church, where benches were lined together and Asuna placed Yolko on one of the benches before sitting beside her. Perhaps feeling a little bit calmer inside the safety of the church, Yolko whispered quietly.

"His….his name was Caynz."

* * *

**1st floor, Black Iron Castle, «Monument Of Life»**

Originally she had planned to ask the «Monument» keeper, a player by the name of Apate to find out the details of the player that Kirito had asked her to look for but she could not reach the keeper by messaging. So after a short detour to the «Hill of Memories» where she made a flower bouquet from the flowers she picked, Yuri headed down to the 1st floor. After arriving at the «Monument of Life», she found no sign of Private Apate or anyone else inside. Seeing no other choice she began scanning through the names and after a rather extremely extensive search found the name she was looking for.

Kains, Died on the Month of Sakura, day 22, 18:27, Cause of death 'Continuous Pierce Damage'

Yuri took the time to make sure every detail was correct, before sending the message to Kirito. She couldn't understand why he would an interest in taking care of a murder case in the 57th floor when it should have been left to the floor's garrison to deal with. Sighing heavily, she stared at her system window as she thought about dropping her grudge for his insane actions in the 48th floor.

Turning her attention back to the «Monument», Yuri tried to find her brother's name. Though, his body was probably buried in the real world, the monument was the closest thing to a memorial for the players who had died within the game. She should have visited this place a bit sooner but events had kept her away.

Carefully looking through the names across the «Monument» she found many of the names she recognized, almost all of them dying during the battle on the 25th floor. Feeling slightly guilty about forgetting them, she tried to remember individual faces and began paying homage to all the army players who had been killed.

After several hours, she continued to stare at the long list and found that she nowhere near her brother's name. Sighing heavily as she realized just how many people in the «Army» had perished since the start of the game, Yuri returned her attention back to the monument and tried to remember the face of an army player whose name she stared at. Before her mind could provide the necessary answers, a message interrupted her homage.

Feeling slightly annoyed, she placed flower bouquet next to the «Monument» and opened the recently arrived message from Kirito.

Are you sure about what you found? Also can you check up on a player called Yolko? She was the latest victim to the series of murder that is going right now.

Frowning at the message, she checked the time of the death of Kains and found it to be correct. Feeling suspicious at why Kirito would want her to double check on a name of a dead player, she hesitantly looked for the second name that he had asked for. But to her surprise the name Yolko was not crossed out, indicating that the player who Kirito had claimed to been killed was in fact alive.

Puzzled at what she found, Yuri quickly tapped out her findings into a message and asked Kirito why the second player he wanted her to find was still alive. For several minutes she waited for Kirito to reply back, but after a while it appeared that he must have been caught up in something else.

Feeling anxious, she twirled her hair while staring at the black slab of the «Monument» as she began once more trying to distract herself. But before she could get far from the name she started from, a hand gently tapped her from behind. Whirling around in surprise, she pulled out her Katana in one fluid motion and pointed her sword squarely at the intruder.

"Sorry to startle you Miss, but you can't be here." Politely smiling Apate, the monument keeper, took a step back from the sword pointed at his face and picked up the flower she brought, handing them back to her. "If you have any inquires please ask me, and I will get back to you… but you cannot be here."

Feeling a bit curious, especially after Kirito's message that asked her to see if a player victim of a serial killer who actually turned out to be alive, she asked. "Why?! Anyone can visit the monument."

"Be-Because-" Apate surprised by her obvious question stuttered. Suspicious at the keeper's behavior Yuri carefully studied the nervous player, who upon noticing her staring at him made what appeared to be a split second decision by reaching for his sword, but before he could draw his weapon out a familiar voice echoed through the hall.

"And that's exactly why you shouldn't have visited, Yuri. The neighborhood is just full of dangerous people these days." Turning to the source of the voice behind her, Yuri saw two players walking towards her. One of them was an army player while the other was female player with a halberd, a long two handed weapon that was a combination of a spear and axe but despite their differences both players had orange cursors floating on top of their head. The army player, who Yuri assumed to be the one speaking, glanced at the keeper. "Apate, your cover is blown. Meet us back at the safe house."

Drawing his sword out, Apate screamed. "No! I can just kill her and she won't be able to say a word to anyone."

The army player appearing not too concerned with the drawn weapon grabbed Apate by his collars and lifted the monument keeper high into the air.

"We are inside a city I doubt you can kill anyone. This is not the Black Iron Castle's dungeon where the prisoners are thrown into."

Staring into the Apate's eyes, the army player spoke slowly, choosing each word with care in an effort to deliver his deadly intent. "If you try or even think about harming her, you are going to be one saying nothing to anyone…. I don't need a lackey who can't obey a simple instruction…. do we understand each other?"

After a few seconds, the message appeared to sink in as Apate paled and nodded his head vigorously. "I-I-I understand!"

"Good… off you go then." Satisfied with his work, the army player released Apate and allowed him to teleport away. Turning his attention to Yuri could not understand what had just happened, the stranger raised his visor and smiled as he reached for the bouquet, "Are those flowers for me? Awww you shouldn't have."

* * *

**19th floor, «Hill of the Cross»**

Kirito drove the horse as fast as he could while trying his best not to be thrown off from it. He couldn't understand how some players in the army voluntarily chose to ride horses and chase down orange players, to him it was difficult enough just to keep his balance let alone fight on horseback. Scanning the area in front of him he spotted seven players, four green players and three orange players. It appeared that his theory regarding Yolko and Caynz faking their death seemed to be coming true.

Once spotting the six players next to a large tree, where three orange players and two green players stood facing each other with one other player lying on the floor, Kirito pulled the reins hard in an attempt to slow down. Sadly the horse, instead of coming to a slow stop, came to an immediate stop and Kirito felt himself being flung into the air, landing on his butt with a loud thud. Quickly pulling himself up and pretending as if nothing embarrassing had happened, he greeted the orange player. "PoH. Long time no see. I see you are still wearing those strange clothes."

Appearing annoyed at his criticism, PoH spoke with a hint of threat, "I don't want to be told that by you."

Johnny Black noticing his arrival stepped forward and grinned, "For an army player, you sure are dumb. Where's all your friends? What happened to strength in numbers?! Don't you know the situation you're in!?"

PoH lifted his left hand to stop his subordinate and raised the chopper in his right hand onto his shoulder, lazily tapped his weapon against his body.

"It's just like what he said Kirito. Falling off horses might be funny and all, but that doesn't change the fact that you are alone….. hahahah."

Kirito calmly answered with his right hand on his sword, "For now…. but once reinforcements arrive, you will be finished. Personally I don't think the three of you can take on a group of army players headed this way right now."

But contrary to his expectations, PoH upon hearing his ultimatum snorted. "If you had said that you were bringing players from the clearing group I would be worried but from what I hear your mighty army can't even keep your sub leader safe from being framed for murder."

Frowning Kirito stared at the orange player, "What? Framed?"

Smiling at his ignorance XaXa replied, in his hand an estoc shined brightly, "You don't need to know that. Just remember that this is the part where you fall down and bleed to death."

Before XaXa could come at him with his sword, PoH raised his hand once more to restrain his subordinate, "No, no XaXa…. Keep an eye on the prisoners…. I'll take care of this army lap dog by myself."

Nodding to his subordinates, PoH snapped his finger and in response the two orange players respectively took a green player as a hostage. "Don't feel too bad, the boss will get back to you once he takes care of black." Johnny said, and gently pressed his dagger into Caynz's neck.

After glancing at the two hostages, PoH smiled coldly at him and approached Kirito with his dagger drawn. Though it shouldn't have been different than any other fight, Kirito had a strange feeling that unlike the other orange players he had fought against before there was something incredibly evil oozing from PoH. Even his sword, instead of the usual bright glow of the sword skill, seemed to be devoured by a cloud of darkness. Before he could understand why, PoH positioned himself into his combat stance and activated a sword skill that Kirito had never seen before. Unsure on how to react to this, Kirito tried to meet his attacker by parrying his weapon but when his sword met with PoH's «Mate chopper», the cleaver simply passed through his sword and landed on his shoulder.

Wincing in pain and unable to understand what just happened, Kirito jumped back and readied his blade. "How!"

PoH replied with a chilling smile, "Surprised? It's part of a neat little extra skill I picked up called «Darkness Blade» Hahaha!" Brandishing his meat cleaver the orange player rushed towards him.

Kirito anticipating the strike attempted to block PoH's attack once more but as before, the dagger simply ignored his sword and sliced away at his body. Grasping the fact that his sword was unable to block the orange player's attack, Kirito gave up on all attempts to parry the cleaver. Instead he focused his attention on dodging the blows by keeping himself moving and utilizing his superior speed he attempted to land an attack of his own whenever an opportunity presented itself.

After several minutes of playing the deadly game of Cat and mouse, PoH screamed in frustration. "Stop moving and stand still!" Stopping in his tracks, PoH held up his chopper high into the air with both his hands and the meat cleaver began to glow darkly as black smoke exploded outwards from the dagger, contaminating the nearby area with a low hanging dark fog. Once the dark fog reached his legs and engulfed it, Kirtio felt the lower part of his body responding to his commands sluggishly.

"What? What is this?!"

"A sword skill called «Lunar Eclipse». Think of yourself as a fly caught in a spider's web. Hahahaha"

PoH appearing unaffected by the fog casually walked up to Kirito. "Let's see if you can dodge any more attacks, when you can barely crawl."

Seeing no other choice Kirito drew his second blade, hoping that the presence of two swords would confuse the orange player as it had done in the past.

PoH while appearing to notice the second sword, his face betrayed no surprise. Unwilling to give his opponent a chance to figure out his extra skill, Kirito despite his relatively slow movement speed charged at PoH and unleashed his sword skill, «Sword Storm» but the orange player, effortlessly blocked every single attack as if he had anticipated the move.

Smirking at his opponent PoH laughed like a lunatic, "I know all about your little «Dual Blades» Kirito! A little birdie bitched and moaned about it to us for weeks!"

Kirito confused by what he heard, Kirito blurted out the only name that came to his mind, "Orion!?"

"The very same! Too bad his sister isn't here…. he would have been delighted to have us take her to 'safety'! HAHAHA!"

"That's impossible!" PoH without bothering to answer him, rushed at him once more and took another swipe, slicing off the tip of his hair as the blade skimmed past his head as Kirito managed to duck just in time.

PoH disappointed that his attack had missed, raised his chopper. Readying himself to strike another blow.

"Stop right there! We have your surrounded." An authoritative voice yelled and PoH glancing towards the direction of the voice, stopped and looked around trying to find the source of the voice. "Put your hands up! And we won't stick you with shit load of knives."

"What?!" Looking around in confusion, PoH brought his dagger to his side and with that the dark cloud surrounding them disappeared. Once the fog dissipated, Kirito could see Johnny and XaXa with their hands up, their weapons lay on the ground and with dozens of army players surrounded them.

PoH seeing himself surrounded by an even larger group of army players, holstered his dagger and raising his arms into the air. His maniacal glee disappearing and the reality of the situation settled in. Looking at Kirito, the orange player sneered. "This isn't over…"

"Sure it isn't….. You should have ran when you had the chance." Kirito remarked as he sheathed his swords. "Now… tell me why you are here and I'll make sure that you are treated fairly."

Johnny without hesitation answered. "A nice man by the name Grimlock told us to come here."

XaXa mortified to hear his friend blab, tried to kick Johnny. Unfortunately for Johnny the army players subdued and held him down. "Idiot! Don't just tell him things!"

Exhaling loudly, PoH looked at his subordinates with conflicted emotions, "For all we know, Grimlock could have sold us out to the army."

"And Orion he is alive?!" Kirito asked, in hopes of Johnny answering the question. "Where is he right now?"

However, before Johnny could speak a glare from PoH silenced him. Seeing as he would get no additional answers, Kirito gestured to the army players, "Take those three down to the Black Iron Castle."

* * *

**A/N Happy New year.**

Quotation Fixes: 1/10/2013

Small Edits: 1/10/2013

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/18/2013~ 1/19/2013


	11. Infinite Spear

**1st floor, Black Iron Castle, «Monument Of Life»**

* * *

"Oni-chan!" Yuri yelled in surprise as she saw his face and sheathed her sword

Orion delighted to see his sister gave her an affectionate hug, "Ahhhh! It's been too long," and much to his delight felt no dagger or other types of sharp object going through his back.

"You-you are alive." Orion releasing her from his grip flashed what he considered a dashingly handsome smile at her while wiggling his fingers, studying them with fascination. "Yes… it appears I am…. who would have guessed."

Confused at his remark, Yuri backed away and looked at him as if he had contracted the bubonic plague. "The monument… it said that you died!" Yuri said.

Wagging his finger back and forth he corrected her, "To be exact, private Apate said I died. Just as private Mendax died while exposing Kibaou."

"Mendax?! That was you?! But you fell. How did you survive?"

Rather than answer the questions, he feigned a shocked expression instead. Placing a hand over his chest, he smiled. "Yuri, I'm touched. Last time I fell down a flight of stairs, you giggled while I was rolling around in agony."

"You-you even gave me the whole I am going to die now speech!"

Waving his hand dismissively, Orion couldn't resist smiling at her remark. "How could you think I died…. I am virtually indestructible… Plus it is much easier to get around when everyone thinks you are dead."

Putting his hands to his hip, he proudly announced, "But since you are probably wondering…. My one and only weakness is water! If a single drop of water lands on me I will melt-"

Without warning Anaideia slapped him hard in the back of the head and glared, "Don't joke."

Rubbing the back of his head, Orion muttered to himself quietly before he could control himself. "One of these days, I am going to put a spike back there…. then we will see whose laughing….."

Fortunately for him, Anaideia appeared ignorant of his devious plan. Turning his attention back to his sister, Orion tried to continue where he had left off. But before he could ask what was new in her life, Yuri spoke with a serious expression painted on her face.

"It's over… you got what you wanted. The «Army» is now fighting in the front lines."

Knowing where the conversation was headed, Orion took an educate guess, "So I should now hand myself over to the «Army»."

Yuri nodded slowly, "Yes. I'll make sure that you are treated with respect."

Scratching his chin he expressed his doubt, "I think that offer has passed a long time ago, the «Army» isn't exactly going to welcome me with open arms if I decide to turn myself in. Most likely they will toss me into a nice cozy cell and throw a parade for themselves."

"Then I'll make them listen. There is no reason for you to continue killing people, you can stop now…." Shaking her head Yuri added, "No you need to stop now," Her eyes shone passionately and it seemed she really did want him to stop, not for her sake but for his.

Feeling a bit touched and yet a little saddened that he had to break her naïve mindset, he exhaled loudly. "Yuri…. your concern for me is the best thing I heard since coming to this game. But sadly for us it does not change the fact that you are still stuck in this death game… and I won't stop until the game is finished."

"No it doesn't have to, it can't! Maybe you can make a deal."

Cracking a smile, he opened his inventory and pulled out a corridor crystal. "Now, as much as I would like to share with you the perverted nature of my disturbed colleagues, I don't think this is the place for any sort of lengthy conversation. Let's go somewhere quiet. Before someone else recognizes me."

However, much to his disappointment Yuri held her ground, and reached for her katana. "I am glad that you are still alive but the «Army» still wants to bring you in. I can't just go with you and chhhhatttt-"

Smiling apologetically, he opened the corridor and pushed his sister towards the portal. Who after stumbling several steps forward, fell into the corridor and vanished.

Dusting his hands and feeling quite proud of his accomplishment, Orion stared into the blue light simmering in front of him and smiled. "Well that takes of that…. close it up, don't want anyone else to join her."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Anaideia manipulated and closed the portal, "You don't want to go with her?"

Orion, now feeling slightly depressed for being reminded of what he had just done, continued to stare where the portal was only moments ago. Though he would have given a great deal to have some time to spend with his only family, it would have to wait. "No, I need to be here."

"You do realize that she is going to be able to teleport back here or send a message to warn someone." Anaideia said, appearing worried.

Putting on a smiling face to prevent Ann from seeing his current state of mind, Orion answered. "I don't think anyone will be able to do much even if they know I am alive…. As for her coming back… I sent her to the wandering forest. Teleportation crystals are useless there. It's going to take her at least a few hours to make it out."

Anaideia crossing her arms together looked at him with renewed confidence. "Sounds like you got everything under control."

Seeing her trust in him, Orion found himself smiling. "Far from it…. using that corridor crystal on her means that we can't go with our first plan…. meaning we will have to rely on our backup plan."

"We have a backup plan?" she asked.

"I am afraid so….. Time left?"

"Two hours, they are being escorted very carefully."

Orion shook his head in disbelief, "I still can't believe they got caught, I told them that the information regarding the whereabouts of the DDA leader was too good to be true….. but nooooo they just had to go there."

Ignoring his monotone Anaideia quietly suggested. "Call for help?"

After briefly considering her idea, he shook his head. "Last time I used a bunch of mercenaries, they ditched me in a middle of a fight and ran off crying."

Taking a moment to compose himself, Orion hoped that his backup plan would work. "I am afraid it is just going to be the two of us against incredibly stacked odds. But fortunately for us, I came prepared," Grinning he handed her an «Army» uniform.

* * *

**1st floor, «Black Iron Castle Dungeon», Prison Block C**

The three orange players, freshly captured on the 19th floor were being escorted to their cells located within the dungeon of the «Black Iron Castle». A fine establishment where prisoners could be safely locked up and kept there with assistance of jailers who kept the prisoners company and prevented them from leaving with the use of force.

The hands of the three orange players had been tightly bound and several heavily armored jailers ensured that it would stay that way.

Over their heads, the jailers had orange cursors identical to the ones that the prisoners, an occupational effect that resulted from the jailer's fondness of using violence to prevent prisoners from escaping. To many within the «Army» the jailers were a necessary evil for the greater good. To further prove this point, the orange cursor of the jailers also allowed the two of them to blend in despite the presence of orange crystals floating on top of their heads.

A few steps behind the jailers a dozen «Army» players dressed fully in black quietly marched with them, a group of players that present to prevent any sort of would be assassin from harming their leader Thinker and his aide Yulier.

Giving Ann the sign they had agreed upon, the two of them began silently poisoning the jailers with a specially crafted poison with a delayed effect.

"This is a game, every player is given the right to kill and enjoy themselves." PoH commented to one of the jailer escorting him, "It's not a crime to play the game to its fullest extent."

"Shut it lunatic." The jailer replied as he violently shoved PoH.

"Don't treat him too roughly. I believe this is an excellent time to resolve the whole misunderstanding between orange players and us through words." Thinker said from the safety of his human shields.

Standing next to the guild leader was Yulier, a female «Army» player known for her preference of using a whip rather than traditional weapons. Normally he would be worried about presence of Yulier and the black spooks escorting Thinker but today everything would be different.

"Hahaha! Just how naïve are you? We actually play this game to its full potential while you are just limited by your so called moral code." PoH replied giving a slasher smile to Thinker and the rest of «Army» players.

Thinker closed his eyes and shook his head, appearing disappointed by PoH's point of view. "Killing someone is wrong. There is no justification for it."

"What if you have a really good reason?" Orion commented. As if to make his point sound a little more dramatic, every other jailer with the exception of Anaideia and himself, fell to the ground snoring.

The remaining «Army» players, or to be more precise Thinker's bodyguards, immediately surrounded their guild leader into a protective circle and eyed the two would be assassins with suspicion.

"Your late," XaXa said. Kicking one of the jailers in the head to make sure that the player was really sleeping.

Wagging his finger at the orange player, Orion gloated. "Shut up pink eyes…. Keep talking and I just might leave the cuffs on. In fact this reminds of a story I once heard about you, I believe it was on the 42nd floor where you were bound by a very kinky player- OW!"

"Not the time. Untie them." Anaideia calmly suggested, pretending as if the blow he had received had been imagined.

Orion while giving his companion adorable puppy eyes, unbounded the three orange players and handed the «Laughing Coffin» members their weapons. "Now…. that you are free from your shackles. Shall we begin?"

Without bothering replying to his question, the «Laughing Coffin» readied their weapons for battle. Taking their silence as confirmation he began counting the number of bodyguards Thinker had brought with him. Unfortunately, before he could finish this mathematical problem the «Army» leader screamed, "What! What are you doing?!"

Smiling smugly, he doubled checked his weapons out of habit "What do you think I am doing? Remember, there are no wrong answers."

"They are criminals! They need to be locked up! Don't you know what kind of harm they will do?"

While Thinker screamed out of top of his lung, the whip wielder silently nodded to the general's body guards and the «Army» players fanned out, readying themselves to put down the five orange players with force.

Touching his concealed throwing knives one last time for reassurance, Orion confidently stepped forward, his hands empty of any weapons. With a confusion painted on his face, he tried to use his sarcastic tone of voice and shouted to Thinker. "OH NO! What have I done?! Releasing this ungrateful batch of criminals, without any planning whatsoever! Why didn't you tell me sooner general!?"

Raising his hands high into the air to show that he meant no harm, he stepped closer to Thinker. Predictability, few of the general's bodyguards rushed him, probably to put him down to the ground and make him eat dirt.

Regardless of their noble intention, once «Army» players came within range, Orion swept his hands across the «Army» players in a single fluid motion. As he moved his hands past each «Army» member, he could see the surprise on their faces as metal spikes made contact with their neck. Moments later, his attackers collapsed to the floor, clawing at their throats as the sleeping poison kicked in slowly placed them to sleep.

After squatting down to make sure that all the «Army» players were indeed sleeping, Orion glanced towards Anaideia. Who by then had engaged with two army players, thrusting her spear forward and piercing two «Army» players with a single stroke, killing them instantly.

Withholding the urge to clap enthusiastically for the creative use of her skill, Orion looked a little further away from Anaideia and towards PoH. Judging by the psychotic smirk on PoH's face, the orange player seemed to be having a marvelous time, as a trio of army players foolish enough to attack PoH charged towards him.

Meeting them head on, the three army players and PoH soon disappeared inside a dark cloud that materialized around them. After a brief sound of metal clashing against each other, the only sound that emerged from the dark fog were the screams of the «Army» until that too disappeared behind the depressing cloud cover.

Tearing himself away from the rather disturbing sight, Orion focused his attention back to his primary objective, Thinker who was now down to three guards and visibly concerned about his current predicament.

Before he could ask Thinker to surrender, Johnny and XaXa engaged the two of the three remaining guards, who after brief struggle, exploded into fragments by the savage attack of the two orange players.

Yulier, the sole remaining guard tried to protect her guild leader by lashing out at Anaideia with her whip.

Sadly for the whip user, her exotic weapon proved to be no match for Anaideia. Immediately after he first strike the whip became entangled with the halberd, and Anaideia simply pulled her spear, tossing the entangled weapon aside. Without mercy, the orange player then impaled the disarmed «Army» player and kept her spear inside the «Army» player to maintain a steady amount of pain and damage.

Seeing his Yulier in pain Thinker yelled, "Stop! I'll do anything you want me to." Anaideia while ignoring the desperate cry of the army player looked towards him for instructions. Giving her an affirmative nod, Anaideia replied in kind by pulling out her spear.

Grateful for herself restraint, he found himself smiling warmly. "Excellent choice of words general… those are indeed the magic words that will let you stay alive."

Casually Orion approached the trio and found the sight of Thinker holding Yulier in his arms to be rather touching. Still there was work to be done and he couldn't just let them go because it was the right thing to do. Twirling his poisoned knife, he threw it at the fallen whip user, putting her to sleep.

Raising his hand to calm Thinker, Orion sheathed his weapons to convey his peaceful intentions. "Now, now don't worry she is just taking a small nap, in a couple hours she will as good as new."

Squatting next to the guild leader, he looked Thinker in the eye, "Now I understand that you are a bit confused about everything but rest assured everything will become clear in due time. However, before we do anything else please accept my application into the guild."

Raising his hand he explained. "I know, I know…. I might not seem like an «Army» material but I can promise you that I had plenty of work experience."

Thinker after a slight hesitation opened the guild management page within the game system and sent Orion the guild invitation. Once the invitation pop up materialized in front of him, he accepted and became part of the «Army» once more.

Just as he was about to issue further instructions to Thinker, the sound of a loud cough interrupted him. Looking over his shoulder he found the three members of the «Laughing Coffin» waiting impatiently, their arms crossed. "Aren't you forgetting something?" pink eyes asked.

Opening his inventory Orion tossed out three teleportation crystal to the orange players, "Right…. Here are your blasted crystals…. You know where to meet me?"

Catching the crystal gracefully, PoH replied. "We do. But if you are not there?"

"I'll be there."

Appearing skeptical of his word, PoH looked at him with doubt. "You sure you don't want to escape?"

Frowning Orion looked at the psychopath with shock, "Escape?! This is my moment of triumph. I am surprised you are running away, when you could be witnessing history being made."

"No thanks, I prefer to keep my neck safe."

Orion waved goodbye and the three orange players teleported themselves away. Turning his attention back to the two «Army» players, he gave Thinker a friendly smile, "Well then… now that our troublesome guests have left, let's get cracking…. You are going to make me into a very powerful person."

"No he won't." The ever annoying voice he came to recognize as Kirito interrupted him, letting out a long sigh Orion, glanced over his shoulder hoping that he was wrong. But much to his disappointment, he found the black swordsman smiling back at him.

Tilting his head towards the unwelcome guest, Orion greeted with a polite smile of his own, "Hello there I am fine…. How are you?

The Black Swordsmen, ignoring his pleasantries, looked at him with unflattering facial expressions. If he didn't know better Orion would have sworn that the Army player disliked him with a fiery passion.

"Why did you free them?!" His visitor demanded.

Brushing the invisible sweat from his forehead, Orion smirked, "Phew, for a second there I thought you were going to ask a difficult question." However, despite his attempt at keeping a calm composure, he had not anticipated meeting Kirito and he tried to figure out how he could prevail over the situation.

Taking his behavior for some kind of confession, Kirito looked at him with disgust. "So you are a member of the «Laughing Coffin»."

Closing his eyes and putting his hand over his face Orion sighed deeply, disappointed by what he had been accused of. "No. Do I look like a crazy psychopath, whose goes running around killing people?"

"Then why?!" Kirito asked, as he took another step forward.

"I don't throw away useful tools…." Holding his up his hand, seeing the two players he had next to him a half baked idea came to him. "Now, Kirito I suggest you stay where you are before I get nervous and do something you might regret to these two love birds."

"You won't have the time." A beautiful girl dressed in white with red stripes running down her armor, commented as she appeared from the shadows and stood next to Kirito. Squinting, he saw a rapier dangling on her side. Putting the pieces together it appeared that the female player was Asuna, or «Flash» as some of the players called her.

Scratching his chin, Orion figured more had to be hiding near and searched the area for the two «Army» players that had always been with Yuri or Kirito whenever the two. He wondered if they were hiding close by, ready to jump out and surprise him at a moment's notice. Maintaining his carefree expression he inquired, "Where's David and Goliath?"

"What?"

"George and Lennie?" Looking at the confusion painted on Kirito's face, Orion moved his hands to draw him a picture, by indicating their heights. "One big guy, and one short guy."

Finally realizing the two people he was referring to, Kirito explained, "Those two went after Yuri to get her out of the forest you dumped her in."

Cracking a smile at Kirito's confession that there would be no additional reinforcement for a time, Orion stretched his arms. "Good for them, even if she probably doesn't need much help."

Still that did not explain the presence of the KoB player. Pointing his finger at Asuna, he asked. "So why's she here? I didn't know that «Knights of the Blood Oath» were so keenly interested in the mortal affairs of the «Army»."

"I'll tell you why after the two of you are behind bars." The chestnut haired player answered and drew her rapier.

Shrugging his shoulder to display his peaceful intentions, Orion tilted his head slightly, silently signaling Anaideia to be ready for trouble. "Hello beautiful. Name's Orion, a noble hero that will save the world. Now... must we resort to violence? After all I am a man of peace."

"What peace? You're an orange player Orion." Kirito answered sharply.

Upon hearing such harsh words, he involuntarily took a step back. "Whoa! Somebody is a racist… judging people by the color of their cursors…. and don't be too pessimistic, once the guild is under my tender care, all shall be well in the land."

"You think anyone will stay with the guild once they realize that an orange player has taken over!?" Kirito asked with great confidence.

"Why not?" he replied, "I will be providing them with flexible work schedule. Not to mention wiping out corruption and incompetency that seems to be staple characteristics of the «Army» these days."

Frowning at his campaign lines, Kirito studied him, appearing puzzled once more at what he had proclaimed. "Why are you doing this?! You have what you want! The «Army» is now fighting in the front lines."

"Of course I have what I want… after all I did take the effort to stage a murder so that smug bastard Kibaou. As for the small band of «Army» players fighting in the front lines…. that is just a temporary measure. The vast majority of the «Army» is still stuck in the lower floors fighting 'and' losing against the orange players. It's just matter of time until the «Army» will pull back from the front lines to keep the lower floors safe… or at least they will try until the orange players eventually prevail against their futile efforts and take over. "

"And let me guess, you are the only one who can prevent this from happening." Kirito guessed.

Clapping his hands sarcastically, Orion found himself smirking, "Finally! We are getting somewhere. Of course I can. Why else would I bother to do all this?"

But before the «Army» player could respond with a hurtful answer, Orion wiped the smile off his face and continued. "Now…. to more pressing matters. Normally, I would have locked you up in a nice cozy cell without any food, and feed you your own limbs after marinating them. But I know that you saved Yuri even if she is too proud to admit it and for that I am grateful."

Though it was painfully slow progress, it seemed that the black swordsman finally realize something he had not known before. "You are the one who threw the knives."

Taking a small bow, he smiled once more. "Guilty as charged… though to be fair I wasn't trying to save you…. still I appreciate your unnecessary gesture. So to show my everlasting gratitude I am going to let you walk away and forget all about what just happened. No strings attached."

Without spending even a moment to consider his generous offer, Kirito responded. "That's an easy one. You are going down. This time you don't even have a trap set up for me, or some friends who will fight for you."

Though it was true that Kirito had raised a valid point regarding his current and past his predicament, Orion chose to laugh at the «Army» player instead to hide his shame. "Hahahaha! You think I lost on the 24th floor?! Please….the 24th floor was merely a set back and the same could be said for you, I don't see anyone behind you two."

"We clear bosses, we don't need help taking the two of you down." Asuna spoke like a true clearer who probably had little to no experience fighting against players.

"And we fight players on daily basis. We don't need help to take you two down." Orion replied cheerfully.

Turning to Kirito he studied the army player with interest, "And don't even think about gloating about your dual blades… after our lovely meeting I've seen better and far more interesting skills."

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked. Judging from his reaction it seemed that the arrogant «Army» player had never considered such possibilities.

Feeling a little annoyed for having to spoon-feed everything to the young player, Orion chose to speak slowly just to annoy the other player. "Well… you see….. there are many skills in this game….. some are common….. and others are not…. just like no one has your ability to hold two swords at once…. For instance… Ann-"

Glancing and finding a disapproving glare aimed at him, Orion cleared his throat. "I mean Anaideia has a rather exquisite skill called an «Infinite Spear»."

"What about you?" Kirito asked instead, "Do you have an extra skill that no one has?"

He shrugged his shoulders innocently, "Who can say for sure, maybe you should-"

Appearing tired at his words Kirito took began walking towards him. "Shut up Orion."

* * *

At his words the orange player dropped his hands down to his waists, Kirito moved cautiously towards the orange player, drawing both of his blades and keeping an eye on Orion, whose hands remained empty.

The lack of weapons made it seem as if Orion was planning something, a trap of some sort that would be sprung as soon as he got close. But contrary to his beliefs, nothing happened as he slowly approached the orange player. Feeling as if he had missed something important he slowed down and studied his surroundings.

Asuna taking his cautious behavior as a result of his fear of the orange player, stepped in front of him and blocked his path. "I'll take the loud mouthed orange player. You should go after the spear user. Think of this as returning the favor for the meal I owe you."

Though Kritio felt that he should take on Orion, he figured that the real threat was from the orange player with the supposed skill called the «Infinite Spear». Otherwise there would be no logical reason why Orion would risk fighting against him and Asuna without any significant backup.

"What's this Kirito! Sending your girl friend to fight me?! Where are your balls?!" Orion taunted him, "I understand that you are afraid to fight someone of my magnificent caliber. Still that does not expl-" But before the orange player could finish his boosting, Orion was forced to roll to his sides, just in time to dodge Asuna's rapier as it pierced the area the orange player had been only moments ago.

Pulling himself up from the ground, the orange player shook his fist, "Watch where you are pointing that thing, young lady! Haven't your parents told you not to run around with sharp things?!"

"You look like you can take a beating." Asuna answered coldly before attacking the orange player once more.

Though he wanted to see how the fight would turn out, Kirito focused his attention to the female player with long jet black hair reaching all the way to her waist, and very dark brown eyes to match, waiting for him patiently.

Though she looked relatively harmless, the halberd and the orange cursor told a different story. Hoping to understand why someone would side with Orion, Kirito questioned the female player. "Why are you fighting for him?"

"He's... amusing."

Suspicious about what the orange player in front of him was omitting, Kirito probed further, "That's it?"

"Th-that's it." She replied timidly, much to his disappointment.

"What?" Kirito confused by her simple answer, took time to understand what she had meant, "You can't be serious, he's insane!"

"The difference between insanity... and ingenuity is tiny."Anaideia replied shyly, but refused to elaborate or defend her beliefs.

"You don't talk much do you?"

"No….. not to strangers." She confirmed, her voice slightly wavering.

Kirito feeling slightly at ease approached the female player to see if she could be convinced to surrender. However, all this changed once she gripped her spear. The orange player's eyes hardened and any trace of her shyness evaporated instantly. Judging by the look in her eyes and body language, Kirito guessed that if he lost the duel then she would be the only one of the two to live to tell the tale.

Without waiting, the orange player aimed her spear at Kirito, and the spear glowed brightly as «Lightening strike», a medium level skill, propelled her towards him. Blocking the attack in time, Kirito dived to the side as the orange player followed her attack with a sweep of her spear.

Seeing her attack fail, the orange player jumped back. Kirito unwilling to let the long reach of the spear gain advantage over him, charged at her. But before he could take more than few steps, the orange player's weapon glowed once more. This time with a skill «Unrelenting assault», a eight combo attack capable of raining down series of blows within a short period of time.

An instant later the first of the attacks flew towards him, Kirito expecting to defend against the assault with ease attempted to parry the attack. However, just before the attack landed, the halberd seemed to clone itself in a ghostly form horizontal to the halberd. Unable to react quickly enough, Kirito was only able to block original spear while the phantom spear sliced into his body.

The next attack appeared to be exactly the same, with the spear seeming to double in number once more an instant before it landed on him but this time the second spear seem to materialize vertically rather than horizontally from the original spear.

Confused at what he was fighting against, Kirito felt himself pushed back by the attacks he should have been able to block or dodge. The ghostly spear appearing next to the halberd chipping away at his heath.

The way things the orange player fought, it seemed like she aimed to keep him on the defensive until his health withered down.

"Is that how that how «Infinite Spear» is used? Your spear can create an exact duplicate horizontally or vertically?!" He shouted to her, during the small pause in between their fight.

The female player simply nodded affirmatively before renewing her attack.

Knowing that if he stayed defensive he would surely lose the duel, Kirito launched attacks of his own. Desperately trying to probe the weakness of the extra skill he fought against. But Anaideia countered his attack easily by utilizing the half transparent spear that appeared adjacent to her weapon whenever it suited the orange player.

Kirito ignoring the futility of his strikes, pressed on with his attacks hoping to wear down the orange player.

Relying upon his stronger skills, Kirito without any hesitation launched an assault of his own in the form of «Starburst Stream» and watched as his blades screamed towards the orange player. Despite her ability to create a copy of her Halberd next to her weapon to aid her, Anaideia failed to block several attacks.

Much to his disappointment, all of his successful strikes were glancing blows. To make matters worse, immediately after using such a strong skill, his mobility became limited. Knowing his vulnerability the orange player swung her halberd and sent the spear screaming at him.

However, instead of single phantom blade, two ghostly halberds emerged along with the physical weapon glowing red as «Avalanche», a high hitting sword skill slammed down upon him.

Though he managed to to block the attack by crossing his blades, Kirito felt as if he had just blocked an attack from three players instead. Normally blocking a single «Avalanche» sword skill would have been straining but blocking all three attacks simultaneously proved to be extremely difficult as reflected by his hit points which had dropped significantly.

Jumping back to a safe distance, Kirito weighed his options. It seemed that it would be impossible for him to overpower the female player through brute force alone and while his combos could lower her health. He wasn't too sure if he would be able to survive another attack like the one he had just received.

Desperate to win the fight, Kirito decided to take a gamble. Positioning himself into his fighting stance once more he activated his sword skill «Starburst Stream» as he charged forward and watched as the orange player block the majority of his blows, while some managed to slip past her defences Sadly the strikes that did reach the orange player only inflicted minor damages.

Just as he predicted, immediately after his attack ended, three halberds came rushing down on him. Once again glowing brightly red with the sword skill «Avalanche». But this time, Kirito instead of parrying the blow, moved himself forward towards the orange player, before the axe could land on him. However, even with his superior reflexes, the three blades arced down towards him. Unable to dodge the attack completely Kirito moved the sword in his left arm to block the attack and continued to move forward towards the orange player.

However, even wit this precaution, the impact of the attack shattered his sword and went through his arm, amputating his left shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Kirito with the momentum he gained, placed all his strength to his right arm and slashed down at Anaideia's hand, and his blade landed with precision and enough damage to disarm the orange player. Crying in pain, the orange player dropped her halberd and Kirito with his remaining arm pointed his sword at her throat.

With the orange player immobile at least for the moment, Kirito checked upon Asuna and Orion. However, much to his dismay he found Orion smiling at him with Asuna, sleeping soundly next to Yulier.

* * *

"Hold it right there." Orion said, gently pressing his dagger against the sleeping «KoB» player's neck, silently conveying what he just might do if the «Army» player did not obey his rather simple instruction.

However, despite his actions his mind was completely blank. He still couldn't believe that Ann had lost against Kirito, and it took every bit of willpower he had not to rush towards her.

With the remaining willpower he kept holding onto the KoB player, in a desperate attempt to pretend that he had the situation well in hand, but in reality he had absolutely no idea how this would turn out.

In his perfect plan, Kirito should have been defeated by Ann. To make matters worse, even with Kirito severely wounded, battling the solo player alone would mean that his plan would result in failure by the army guards hiding behind the pillars waiting to rush him.

Maintaining the mask of confidence he wore, Orion tried to keep his hand steady and hoped that the army player couldn't see just how scared he was.

"Drop your sword, funeral clothes." Moments later the sound of a sword clattering to the floor echoed through the halls.

Cracking a smile at his puppet, Orion pointed his finger behind the lone soldier and declared, "That goes to the rest of you lot. Step forward slowly…. If any of you want to be a hero, one of these fine contestants will start leaking…. in a rather unforgettable way."

Seconds later the «Army» players who had been hiding behind the shadows emerged and threw down their weapons to the ground. Orion mentally breathed a sigh of relief, he had expected the army player to ignore him and charge at him. With the immediate danger of him being skewed to death disappearing, Orion tried to figure out what he should do next, until the wounded sight of Anaideia came to his mind.

Maintaining his smiling and trying not to shake his hand, Orion turned his attention to his companion and whispered quietly. "Ann you alright?!"

"I'll live," Anaideia replied. Picking up and sheathing the halberd with her left hand, Ann slowly walked towards him. Orion despite being incredibly close to having a mental break down continued to glare at the army players.

Seeing the state she was in, he shook his head and pressed a teleportation crystal into her hand, "Time for you to perform a disappearing act."

Anaideia appearing rather annoyed at his comment replied sharply. "I am fine."

Withholding the urge to make a sarcastic comment, he simply pointed to her right arm that was missing a hand.

Irritated by his silent comment, Anaideia gripped the halberd tightly, "I can fight just as well with my left."

"Like hell you can….." Upon noticing that the Anaideia had not budged a step, Orion pointed to the three players he had behind him. "I got hostages, effective ones at that. Go. I'll be fine."

Reluctantly Anaideia murmured quietly to the crystal and disappeared.

Seeing his companion evaporate to safety, Orion barked out his latest demands, figuring that he might as well as see how all this will play out. "Funeral clothes….. Slowly take a few steps back until you join the rest of the audience."

The «Army» player clad in depressing colors obeyed his wish, but shouted across the hall, interrupting his train of thought.

"What are you going to do them?!"

"I won't do anything naughty to Yulier or Thinker, as long as you keep your distance." Tilting his head to face the freighted general he smiled, trying to force general into thinking that he still had the upper hand. "I still need the guild leader's cooperation. Isn't that right general?"

Kirito while appearing to be slightly reassured looked at the «Flash» with concern. "What about Asuna!?"

Giving the worried player a friendly smile, Orion moved the knife away from the sleeping clearer to show his peaceful intentions, "Relax…. No harm will come to her, 'if' you keep your distance… You see I have a bad habit of killing people when people don't do what I ask them. So just do what I say and there will be a happy ending for everyone here. Do we have an understanding?"

Though the army player had no idea, Orion hoped that Kirito would keep his distance as he was giving up his the only card he had.

"What do you want?"

Smirking at the question, Orion yawned continuing to pretend like he had everything under control.  
Sadly what came out of his mouth next horrified him, "Aside from what I told you already? I want to clear the game and get my sister safely out of this game."

Mentally kicking himself repeatedly for revealing his secret, Orion tried to smile like a lunatic once more hoping that Kirito or other army player would not exploit his affection for his sister.

While the black swordsman tried to figure out what he had said, Orion feigning a smug smile tapped Thinker on the shoulder. "Now that that's been taken care of…. Thinker now is the time for you to uphold the end of the bargain?"

"I-If I do what you say, no one will get hurt?"

Orion smiled and patted the «Army» player on the shoulder. "Of course. I am not some complete monster…. You have my word. Besides I am not in the habit of throwing away valuable assets for entertainment."

Appearing hesitant to accept the offer, Thinker glanced towards the «Army» group one last time before he caved in, "Al-Alright, I'll do whatever you want me to do."

"Excellent… Shall we begin by promoting me to the status of sub leader?"

Thinker moved his finger through the system window, pressing on various parts of his screen until he blubbered, "Don-done you can now control the «Scroll of Contracts»."

"Well then... if you would be kind enough to demote yourself to some insignificant position and finish our transaction…..." Toying with his knife he moved it towards Yulier's neck to deliver his silent intent, while his mind silently preyed that Thinker would just hand him the guild and let him win.

Fortunately, Thinker exhaling loudly pressed the confirmation button that demoted himself. "It-it's done," Thinker uttered, his voice echoing his resignation, "You-you are now the sole guild leader of the «Army»."

Unable to hide his happiness, Orion grinned, "Splendid, you won't regret this….. probably."

* * *

A/N: Story received valid feedback, editing in progress will post next chapter before the 19th.

Small fixes: 1/11/2013

Small changes: 1/11/2013

1/13/2013: Still alive, writing, editing, destroying.

Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/18/2013 (In progress) 1/21/2013 (Still working on it... curses!)


	12. Under New Management

**«Black Iron Castle», Main Hall, 1st floor**

* * *

It had been two days since the incident at the «Black Iron Castle Dungeon». Orion immediately after gaining his power quickly teleported himself to safety and until today the orange player had kept a low profile.

Though Kirito had no straight forward plan on how to deal with the orange player, it seemed that at the very least he could learn what the Orion planned.

Hiding behind the pillar on the second floor of the Black Iron Castle's main hall, Kirito waited. Inside the hall various orange players stood waiting. Though difficult, Kirito managed to recognize several of these orange players to be the members of the «Laughing Coffin».

However, while the mere presence of orange players standing within heart of the army troubled him, the attendance of various «Army» players standing at attention with the orange players proved to be the most disturbing. He could not believe just how many army players had gathered to pledge themselves to such a twisted player and his cause.

In the center of the hall Orion stood, on top deck of the grand staircase. Clearing his throat, Orion smiled , "Dearly beloved! Today we are gathered here today to mourn the end of Army's rule under Thinker….. But also to usher in the new era! Where the army will be respected, and dedicated by all within the game!"

Before continuing the orange player taped several keys within his message system. Moments later, every player within the room, including Kirito received a proximity message. Scrolling through the mail, Kirito much to his shock recognized those on the list to be the names of garrison commanders on various floors under army's control, and various high ranking army players who had significant amount of influence within the army. Judging by the names within the list, Kirito guessed that these players would be receiving a visit from one of Orion's supporters gathered below.

Returning his attention back to the hall, Kirito tried to listen to what the orange player's speech. "The names in front of you are our persons of interest. Next to one of these names you will find your own. As some of you may have already have wondered, your objective is to ensure that people within these list cooperate with our noble goal."

Pausing to catch his breath the orange player raised his right hand, "If for some reason you are unable to convince them of our pure intentions then they are to be arrested and stored safely within the «Black Iron Castle»'s dungeon for the duration of this death game."

Closing his hand and forming a fist, Orion's eyes gazed upon the crowd coldly. "If they resist, and cannot be escorted to the prison, then they are to be put down like rabid dogs, I do not expect any heroic arrests. Take no risks."

Waving his hand in a dramatic fashion, the orange player dismissed his audience, who checking their target quickly disappeared with the blue light of teleportation engulfing them.

Orion seeing his followers off, exhaled loudly and began climbing the stairs. Though Kirito knew that within «crime prevention boundary» any form of violence would be futile, he felt he needed to vent his frustration and show that orange player that he had not won.

Jumping out from the pillar he had hidden himself, Kirito slammed his sword into Orion's chest. An instant later purple sparks flew out of from where Kirito had struck the orange player and the knockback effect of the game pushed Orion to fly down the stair.

After a hard landing, the orange player eventually came stopped at the bottom of the staircase. With parts of his body bent in an unnatural shape, the guild leader laughed loudly, his voice echoing through the hall. "Hahahahaha! Brilliant! If this was the real world I would have broken my neck!"

Picking himself up from the ground, Orion spoke with a broad grin on his face, "Isn't it wonderful that there are some parts of the game where you can't be murdered?! No matter how you want to kill someone?!"

Kirito sheathed his sword and stared down at Orion with satisfaction, "It doesn't matter. If you ever leave this place, I will find you and continue throwing you in there until you are locked up for good."

"Then what? Put me in a cell?! Please! Don't hesitate! I will be laughing my ass off all the way there," Orion yelled at him, while maintaining his mocking smile, "That'd be like locking me inside my own home then handing me the key."

Without bothering to reply to the taunting player, Kirito walked away. Behind him he could hear the mocking laughter of the orange player echoing through the hall.

* * *

**Town of «Ronbaru», 27th floor,**

One week after his violent meeting with Orion, the political situation within the army had quieted down, but not in the way Kirito expected. Though there had been small isolated «Army» discontent from various parts of the army, these minor acts of resistance failed to grow into a full scale rebellion, mostly because these minor rebellions lacked leader who could have led such movement.

While those who harbored resentment against the current guild leader kept their mouth shut to avoid being silenced by the «Laughing Coffin» or by Orion's supporters.

Not that there were many players within the army who actually disliked their new leader to begin with. Contrary to Kirito's initial belief that the army would reject the orange player as their leader, the vast majority of the army provided little, if any resistance to Orion. Only a very small number of players, especially those who could not keep their mouth shut or those fearing for their lives left the guild.

He supposed that the majority of the Army had their reason for following Orion. After all, life did become significantly better for the majority of the Army players, not only because Orion using his contacts from the orange players flushed out the corruption that had been plaguing the «Army» but also because they no longer had to confront members of the «Laughing Coffin». That had been responsible for slaughtering entire army patrols in the past.  
Finally, much to the delight of ambitious members of the army and clearing guilds who desperately needed more players, Orion increased the number of army players sent to the frontlines. Consequently, many army soldiers and even clearers turned a blind eye to the orange guild leader's rise to power.

Putting all this recent development aside, Kirito wondered for several days on why Orion and his lackeys had chosen ignore him. In his mind the most logical step that Orion could have taken would have resulted in either his imprisonment or being removed from the guild. Yet both of those actions had not been taken and he was left alone.  
After some thought, his current theory regarding the lack of action taken by Orion probably had to do something with the orange player needing him to stay free for some sinister purpose. However, regardless of the reason for his survival Kirito promised himself that Orion would come to regret his decision.

Turning his attention back to his surroundings and to the two army players sitting in front of him, Kirito wondered how he would deliver the news.

Putting down the wooden mug on the table he asked Hermes and Ares. "Where's Yuri?"

"Being stalked. She couldn't lose whoever was following her," Hermes replied, "give her time and she will lose them eventually."

Sighing heavily, Kirito gathered his courage. "Maybe, that's for the best. Saying goodbyes are hard." Looking at the confusion he had created for his two friends, Kirito explained, "I am leaving the guild."

"Like hell you are." Ares replied flatly, "You are not going to throw in the towel. That's what cowards do."

Exhaling loudly, Kirito stared at the table. "But there is nothing I can do from the inside."

Ares slammed the table in anger. "What 'I' Kirito? Stop thinking like you are in this by yourself, we are knee deep in this as well. We are all part of the army. You are not alone! If we put our heads together, I bet we can think of something."

Though feeling a bit unhappy, Kirito decided simmered down and tried to listen, "So, do you have any bright ideas Ares?"

Offering a small smile, the giant scratched his head, "I was thinking that taking down our insane guild leader would be a good start."

Hermes upon hearing the giant's suggestion jolted from his seat appearing surprised by the announcement, "Woah! You never said anything about Orion to me. Why would we want to do that? Loyalty to the guild is good and all but from what I hear we really don't have much reason to get involved in this."

Before Kirito or Ares could intervene the short player raised both of his arms and silenced them, "It's not our problem! Orion is not trying to kill us like Kibaou supposedly was."

"This better not be one of your mood swings, or I am going to slap you silly until you come to your senses." Ares commented dryly, cracking his knuckles suggestively.

Fearing that the ill tempered giant would throw a punch, Kirito spoke, "Hermes, he killed people, there is no excuse for that."

Unfortunately, his words seemed to have little effect on the short player as Hermes responded with a snort, "that's ancient history. People die and the ones he killed sounds like they deserved it. Not to mention that we've been in more than our fair share of getting killed. In fact I think we should stop pushing our luck and try to stay alive for a change. Orion hasn't done anything harmful ever since he became the head of the guild-"

Ignoring the part of his brain suggested screaming at Hermes, Kirito tried to reason with the army player and to make him to see the truth. "He's been cutting deals with orange players."

As expected, Hermes appeared unaffected by the news. "Big deal, nothing new there, army has been doing that for ages."

"Is it?" Kirito asked, "Did you know that just yesterday an army patrol was mysteriously stopped in performing their daily routine?"

"What does that have to do with this?" Hermes questioned, his face growing suspicious.

"...and on that very day a group of players were slaughtered by the «Laughing Coffin» who just happened to be in the area that the army patrol was supposed to patrol." Staring at the short player in the eye, Kirito inquired. "Tell me that Orion hasn't done anything harmful."

Hearing the news Hermes deflated a little while Ares appeared downright outraged. For some strange reason, their reactions reminded Kirito of a scene that occurred in what seemed like ages ago when Yuri had told them of their failure that led to a small group of players being robbed.

Tapping the table mercilessly, Ares with a flushed face spoke, his voice full of contempt. "Kirito. Forget Orion, we need to take down the «Laughing Coffin» first."

For several seconds, Kirito thought about the suggestion and after a moment he nodded in agreement, "I would have preferred going after him first but... that's not a problem, we can do that first, it will probably weaken Orion's grip on the army as well."

Hermes on the other hand, took slightly longer to make his decision, until he eventually sighed loudly and admitted his defeat. "Fine…. But assuming that this is the greatest plan in the world, how are we going to do this?"

Ares appearing extremely irritated smashed the table in anger, "First we will need to find these scumbags, unlike most guilds these degenerates don't even have a permanent headquarters we can attack."

After some hesitation Hermes answered, "I can probably find that out, talk to some old friends and see if they know anything." Briefly pausing, Hermes with a worried look on his face continued, "But even if we know where they are we can't take on a guild just by ourselves. We need help."

"And Orion isn't just going to hand us a company of players to attack his friends." Kirito answered, trying to find an answer to his own statement.

Ares tapped the table relentlessly to a point that small amounts of purple sparkles began flying off from the repeated assault, "I could find some friends, not everyone can be afraid of our orange leader."

"How many people do you think you can find?" Kirito asked, the chance of success rising greatly in his mind.

"Maybe a dozen, a little more if I have some luck." Ares replied, much to his disappointment.

"That's not going to be enough." Hermes shook his head, "We are going to need at least triple that number if we want to have any shot at taking them down. Let's face it we are going to need an elite army of players-"

At the mention of the word elite, Kirito jumped up from his seat and interrupted the short army player. Before the two army players could understand what had just occurred, Kirito ran towards the door.

Hermes confused by his sudden move, shouted after him, "Hey! Where are you going?!"

Kirito feeling too excited about his discovery to explain in detail, yelled back to his friends just before he exited the inn, "To get an army!"

"From where!?" Hermes screamed.

* * *

**«Grandum», 55th floor.**

Arriving on the 55th floor, Kirito looked around and found himself inside the city built entirely out of shining black metal, giving the entire city an unforgiving atmosphere. Walking past the gate plaza, Kirito walked along the road, past the various towers that shone brightly with the sun reflecting itself off from the metal surfaces of the buildings. Reflections that completely blinded his vision in certain places until he eventually arrived in front of the largest steel tower of the city, on top of which white flags with red crosses flapped against the wind.

Walking through the court yard, past the silver spear top gate that gave the headquarters of the Knight of the Blood Oath a rather intimidating look, Kirito entered lobby of the KoB's HQ. Looking around the cold building Kirito tried to find any KoB member who could lead him to Heathcliff, but to his dismay there seemed to be no one within the building.

Realizing that he may have arrived too early, Kirito considered exploring the headquarters himself in an attempt to find Heathcliff, or at least his office. Fortunately, the decision was made for him with the appearance of a familiar face emerging from one of the corridors.

"Kirito-kun why are you here?" Asuna asked. Right behind her Kuradeel glared at him with hatred. Ignoring the Kuradeel's look, he focused his attention on Asuna. Last time he saw her, she was furious at Orion, who she claimed had cheated and had won against her by using dirty tricks. Needless to say, she was more than displeased at the current situation of the Army.

"Asuna I need to talk to Heathcliff."

Confused at what he had asked, she frowned. "Huh? No, you can't just talk to him. What is it about?"

"I need to talk to him, it's about the «Army», and Orion."

At the mention of the orange player, Asuna stiffened. Turning to Kuradeel she spoke, "I'm going to see Heathcliff with him, so it's fine if you go. Thank you for your hard work."

"A-Asuna-sama! Wh-What are you thinking!? Letting someone suspicious like him talk to you! He's from «The Army», they are too dangerous for you."

Kirito couldn't believe what he had just heard. He knew that Kuradeel worshipped Asuna but even for him this seemed to be incredibly rude.

"Okay, it's true that he's from the army," Asuna admitted, appearing quite annoyed to be spoken to in such a way.

Mistaking her annoyance as a sign that she agreed with him, Kuradeel grew excited. "Then Asuna-sama, you know that they don't care about anything as long as it suits their needs! There's nothing to gain from talking with someone from the army!"

Kuradeel's excited voice echoed throughout the hall. Maintaining his glare at Kirito with his heavily lidded eyes, the bodyguard continued his verbal assault. "And if being in the army isn't bad enough, he definitely looks like he was a «Beater» before he joined that degenerate guild!"

"Yeah. You're right." Kirito answered, trying not to punch Kuradeel in the face.

Asuna, who had been calm until now, knotted her eyebrows in disgust. "I appreciate your concern but please leave. That's an order."

She spoke bluntly and grabbed Kirito. Then without saying another word she started walking towards one of the spiral staircase, dragging Kirito right behind her.

Looking back at Kuradeel's furious face Kirito asked, "Err...hey! Is it okay to leave him like that?"

"It's fine!" she answered back.

Climbing up the stairs, he could hear their footsteps echoing through the hall, and after passing countless doors Kirito began to wonder just how tall the tower could be. After what seemed like an eternity, Asuna finally came to a stop in front of a steel door.

Asuna, after a slight pause knocked on the door, lifting the sound restriction on the door. Moments later an authoritative voice emitted behind the door steel door, "Come in."

Pushing the door open Asuna walked in, Kirito followed her closely. Upon entering the room, the first thing he saw was that the room had been surrounded by transparent glass window on all sides, allowing the light to filter through and coloring the room in a monotone grey.

Next, he spotted a huge semi-circular table in the center of the room and Heathcliff behind it, appearing to be working on writing a message of some sort but from where he was standing it was difficult to read the contents of the message.

Lifting his head from his work, Heathcliff noticed his visitor. Closing off his system window, he nodded to Asuna before turning his attention to him. "Is this the first time I've met you outside of a boss fight, Kirito?"

"No... We talked for a while during the 67th floor strategy meeting," he answered.

Heathcliff clasped his hands together on top of the table and studied Kirito with his grey eyes, "Well then. What brings you here? Have you finally decided to leave the «Army» and join the KoB after what happened?"

"No. I plan on staying, but I do need KoB's help in forming a coalition against the «Laughing Coffin»."

Heathcliff gazed at him. His sharp metallic eyes showed an unwavering will behind them, "Why should we help you?"

Though he was shocked that someone would refuse to fight the red guild, Kirito suppressing his anger, tried to speak diplomatically, in an attempt to reason with guild leader. "You are not just helping us. You are helping every green player against the «Laughing Coffin»."

"This sounds like the job for the «Army», maybe you should go ask your guild leader for help." Heathcliff replied, subtly mocking him.

Gritting his teeth, Kirito continued to hold his anger in check, "The «Army» has been taken over by an orange player."

"That still doesn't explain why we should help you." Heathcliff replied innocently but something behind the guild leader's voice suggested that Heathcliff was testing him.

Kirito fueled by his anger Ignored his better judgment to remain diplomatic and bluntly expressed his point of view, "if we don't do anything then innocent players will die."

Heathcliff stared at him uneasily, "Strange…. From what I understand your guild leader is in friendly terms with them, wouldn't he just free them from their cells once someone makes the arrest?"

"True but we can't just sit back and let them do whatever they want!" Kirito answered, staring right back at Heathcliff, completely ignoring the rational part of his brain.

However, much to his surprise Heathcliff suddenly cracked a smiled, as if he had been waiting for Kirito to say those precise words. "Exactly."

Maintaining his smile, Heathcliff leaned back on his chair. "To tell you the truth Kirito, I am more than willing to lend you our support. But that still does not change the fact that we do not know where their base is. Otherwise we would have attacked them a long time ago."

Finding himself smiling back Kirito answered confidently, "Lucky for us, I have a friend who just might know where they are holed up."

* * *

A/N: Wait! Before you lock me up inside a remote shack, cut off my limbs and marinate them, followed by starving me until I am forced to eat my own limbs, listen to what I have to say!

I must apologize for taking so long to publish this chapter. It will not happen again. (I have been working on the previous chapters, trying to improve their quality. In fact I am still trying to do so at this very moment.)

Now with all this said, I would like to take this time and ask you the readers for additional feedback. I am aware I can still improve my writing and the story in many ways and I appreciate **(demand)** whatever you may have to say. Failing that just write me a review and tell me what I am doing wrong or right in a very vague way.

Nitpick is needed for the greater good. Do your part in the glorious struggle! (Even flames are welcome, Even if after extracting the necessary information I will be burning them at the stakes and cackle as I watch them scream.)


	13. Just Another Day

**«Pydna» 58th floor**

* * *

It had been two weeks since his meeting with Heathcliff for Hermes to find an accurate location of the red guild.  
Kirito leading the sizeable group of clearers, navigated through the damp dungeon to meet up with his friends from the army and «Fuurinkazan» guild who should be patiently waiting for them in front of the «Laughing Coffin»'s supposed headquarters.  
Kirito Behind him various members of the «Knights of the Blood Oath», and several players from the clearing group kept their eyes open for trouble.  
He looked over his shoulder and saw Asuna's anxious face. Though he was a little surprised, he could understand her anxiety. After all this crusade, as some have taken the likening to calling it, would be the first time many of clearers actively fought against other human beings.

To further prove his point, Kuradeel walking directly behind Asuna appeared to be absorbed in his task of typing out a message his hands shaking a little.

"What are you doing Kuradeel?" he asked.

Instead the «KoB» player smiled at him, and sent the message he had been working on. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with Kirito."

Unnerved by Kuradeel's smile, Kirito returned his attention in front of him. Coming around a corner, he arrived at his destination.

In front of him, Hermes and Ares waved their hands in greetings. Behind the two players a small group of army players stood in attention.

"Where's Klein and Yuri?!" he asked, searching the area for Yuri and the members of the «Fuurinkazan» guild.

"Yuri went to bring them here. She thought they were taking too long. Don't worry they will be here soon." Hermes said and studied group of clearers he had brought with a satisfaction, or so he did until the short player noticed Kuradeel and scowled. "Look what the cat dragged in."

Kuradeel hearing the remark made against him glared back at the army player.

Gently grabbing Hermes' shoulder Ares whispered. "Be polite. I hate this sob as much as you but you never know if he will end up stabbing you in the back one day for it."

"Ya. If I don't stab him first." Hermes replied quietly, crossing his arms together and baring his teeth in anger, he continued to stare at the «KoB» player with contempt.

Before Kirito could mend the situation, Heathcliff emerged from the group and approached the short player. "You must be Hermes," he stated.

Hermes trying to act respectfully gave a gently nod. "Yes I am… and I am guessing you must be Heathcliff."

"You are sure you have the location of the red guild?"

"Down to their numbers." Ares answered for Hermes, with a smile.

Before further detail could be discussed Kirito noticed through the small alert in his mini map that showed a group of players approaching their location. Looking towards the direction, he spotted Yuri and Klein walking towards them in a very awkward manner, their faces glowing brightly. Behind them, the rest of the «Fuurinkazan» followed.

Ares once spotting the approaching group, waved to them with a smile on his face. "What took you so long Yuri?"

"N-Nothing! Absolutely nothing happened!" Yuri shouted, but her face brightened a little more as Ares looked at her with doubt.

Kirito not believing a word Yuri had said as well, turned his attention to Klein who upon seeing his gaze blurted out. "I-It just took a while."

"How? There are no mobs out there that would have slowed you down."

But Klein ignored his question and refused to answer. Finding their behavior to be odd, Kirito tried to remember what could have happened to the two players and continued to stare at them.  
Seeing his staring, the two players avoided eye contact with him.

After studying the two for a few moments Kirito sighed, realizing what had happened. "You asked her on a date didn't you?"

Instead of denying his guess, Yuri stared at the ground while Klein stood with his mouth open looking at him with disbelief. "How-how did you know?!"

"Lucky guess," Kirito said, cracking a smile.

* * *

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the «Laughing Coffin»'s headquarter." Hermes shouted pointing to the large metallic gate. "Behind this gate, the world's most despicable criminals are just dying to meet you."

"Just open the dam door," Ares whispered across from the door. Behind the giant an organized single line of players had formed ready to pour into the room.

Nervous about the upcoming battle, Kirito tried to keep his mind sharp.

"Hey! Smile Kirito," the short player commented, noticing his nervousness. "It's just going to be any other day. We go in and get the bad guys, no fuss."

Though Kirito agreed and knew that this would be just another fight, he couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness. Still he smiled in a attempt to reassure his friend.

Returning his smile with a grin, Hermes pulled the door open. The door groaned loudly as it began to open slowly. Once the door was sufficiently opened, Ares without waiting for the door to open completely rushed in.

Kirito and Hermes after making sure the door had opened all the way soon followed. Expecting to get a jump on the orange players, Kirito entered the room without a second thought. However, instead of catching the orange player with the element of surprise, Kirito found the orange players smiling at them with their throwing knives ready.

"HAHAHAHA ITS SHOW TIME!" The familiar voice Kirito recognized belonging to PoH yelled at them from a distance.

"Shit! It's a trap!" One of the army players screamed. Moments later a hail of throwing knives landed on the green players. Kirito rolled behind Ares' shield just in time avoided being impaled by dozen throwing knives aimed at him.

Deflecting a knife a knife thrown in his general direction that had managed to pass the shield, he looked at Hermes with disbelief. "How the hell did they know we were coming!?"

"This isn't my fault! I swear!" Hermes shouted back and for a split second glanced at Kuradeel fighting alongside Asuna with suspicion.

Hearing their conversation behind him, Ares screamed with joy. "What trap!? This is perfect!"

Before either of them could contradict the giant, Ares rushed forward toward the one of the larger cluster of orange players.

Kirito seeing his cover move forward followed shortly behind. Meanwhile Hermes waved them off and jumped behind a pillar to dodge the storm of knives flying in his direction.

Drawing both of his swords, Kirito tried to keep up with Ares. However, before he could catch up with the army player an orange player jumped in front of him and blocked his path.

Without hesitation, Kirito lashed out against his obstacle and the orange player in return attacked him with his dagger. The sound of the two metals clashing against one another joined the steady rhythm of battle around them.

After dispatching his latest opponent with a well placed strike to the player's right hand, Kirito breathed a sigh of relief. For now it seemed that no one was actively trying to kill him.

Taking a moment to look around him, he could see Klein and Yuri fighting side by side, their Katanas flashing across the battlefield cutting down orange players effortlessly by timing their attacks with one another.

Glad to see that two of his friends were still alive and kicking, Kirito tried to find his next opponent. However, what caught his eyes next stopped in his tracks.

Only some distance away, Heathcliff with his white armor shining brightly through the battlefield, crossed his blades against PoH, who in sharp contrast had a dark fog emitting from him.

Interested to see how the two players who possessed extra skills unique to them, Kirito forgot about the battle taking place around him looked towards the two guild leaders with interest.

PoH, laughing manically, raised his chopper and sliced at Heathcliff. Before Kirito could shout out and warn Heathcliff about PoH's extra skill, the paladin attempted to parry the dark blade. However, instead of blocking the attack PoH's blade simply bypassed his opponent's blade and grazed the surprised player.

Heathcliff, unable to understand what had just happened, jumped away but PoH immediately gave chase and swiped his dagger at the knight once more. Heathcliff, seeing the blade rush towards him yet again, raised his shield and managed to block the orange player's blow.

The paladin keeping his face free of any emotions let out a small battle cry and launched a counter blow. Unfortunately, PoH blocked the attack with ease and smiled. Raising his left hand high into the air, the orange player jumped back and in his place five orange players materialized out of nowhere and rushed towards Heathcliff.

Seeing the knight outnumbered five to one. His mind snapped back into reality and Kirito rushed to aid the «KoB» leader.

Arriving just in time, Kirito blocked the path of two orange players before they could reach Heathcliff. After successfully parrying their strikes, Kirito exploited the gaps within their defenses and amputated one of the orange player's legs while destroying his friend's weapon.

Stealing a glance at Heathcliff he found the «KoB» player successfully dealing with the last of the orange player, his health slightly over 50%.

At that moment, PoH emerged once more and launched himself against the paladin. His blade exploding with the dark fog that Kirito recognized as «Lunar Eclipse» a skill that the orange player had used to slow his movement him in the past. Shouting out a quick warning to stay away from the orange player, Kirito tried to reach the Paladin but the orange player who he had previously assumed to have surrendered lunged at him with his fists.

Sidestepping the orange player's charge, he slammed his sword into the orange player's right hand, completely destroying the hand. Kicking the orange player to the ground, Kirito focused his attention back to PoH and Heathcliff.

Much to his dismay the spot where he spotted Heathcliff last had now been covered entirely by a black fog, silently praying that Heathcliff would be able hold on, he rushed toward the black fog. However, before he could get far, the dark cloud exploded with a flash of light. Shielding his eyes, Kirito heard several players screaming in pain as the flash of light blinded them.

Once the bright light had faded away, Kirito for a split second spotted purple sparks emerging from Heathcliff's shield that had clashed against PoH mate chopper. An instant later another flash of light emerged from Heathcliff's sword as he struck the orange player and Kirito had to cover his eyes once more.

By the time the flash had subsided and Kirito slowly opened his eyes, he found PoH lying on the ground defeated and pinned to the floor by various «KoB» players who had rushed to the aid of their leader.

Returning his attention to the fight, Kirito felt a sharp pain across his chest. Looking down he found the persistent orange player with a missing hand holding a dagger on his remaining hand that had embedded itself on his chest.

Crying out in pain, Kirito knocked the orange player back and pulled out the dagger from his chest. Throwing the dagger away, he tried to find the orange player and found the ever determined orange player charging at him once more.

Kirito not willing to kill the stubborn player placed a stun on him and pushed him back once more. However, once the orange player recovered from his stun, he sprinted after him again.

Rattled by the determination of the orange player, Kirito hesitated for a split second and failed to launch his attack in time. The orange player smiled realizing that Kirito would not be able to stop him in time and threw his remaining fist against Kirito.

Or so he thought. An instant before the blow could land on him. Ares appearing out of nowhere smacked the orange player with his shield and sent the orange player skidding across the floor.

"What are you doing? Don't hesitate when they are trying to kill you!" the giant said and without waiting for him to reply, the giant turned his attention as a trio of orange players that lunged at him.

Kirito breathed with relief. He did not want to kill the orange player and he mentally thanked the giant for his intervention. Refocusing his thoughts to the battle, Kirito to his surprise spotted the orange player Ares had sent flying away refused to give up. Readying his sword Kirito prepared himself to place another stun. However, instead of coming after him the orange player sprinted towards Ares, whose back had been turned away trying to deal with three orange players that assaulted him.

Kirito in an attempt to alert the giant shouted out in warning, but the army player too concentrated in his fight did not hear his cry.

Though he knew that the only sure way of stopping the orange player would be to kill him, Kirito hesitated. He didn't want to kill anyone even if he was an orange player. But that moment of hesitation allowed the orange player to get close to Ares and use his martial art skill to place a stun on the unsuspecting army player.

Ares with a yellow light effect circling on top of his head that indicated his stun status, stood helplessly as he was slashed and stabbed at by the three orange players he had been fighting only moments ago.

Kirito horrified at he saw, ran to the giant's aid as the latter's health dropped in alarming rate.

Though it took him only a split second to reach the army player, it seemed like an eternity. By the time he could see his friend's face he only found a dumbfound expression on the army player's, unable to understand how he had been stunned.

Ares as his health bar reached rock bottom, he looked towards him in the last possible moment with panic drawn in his eyes then exploded into tiny glass fragments.

Stopping in his tracks, Kirito stared at the empty air where his friend stood only seconds ago. He could not believe what had happened right in front of his eyes. As he stood there, Kirito saw the four orange players laughing and congratulating each other for their victory in front of him.

Screaming in rage, he charged at them, his world turning red. Swinging his blade with deadly intent, the first orange player had just enough time to cry out in warning before he fell by his blade. The two other orange players seeing their comrade fall rushed at Kirito with their weapons drawn.

The orange players with their weapons glowing with sword skills took a swing at him. Kirito ducking under the attack used his momentum and slammed both of his swords into each of the Orange player's heart simultaneously, killing them instantly.

The sole remaining orange player, the very one he had allowed to live repeatedly, did not seem too troubled by the death of three of his comrades. Instead the orange player looked at him with amusement drawn on his face.

Raising both his hands into the air, the orange player smiled."I surrender."

"You wouldn't kill a surrendering player would ya?"The killer said, putting his remaining hand behind his head.

Kirito, trying to ignore the mocking voice, raised his blade ready to strike and brought it down. But an instant before his sword reached the orange player he stopped. Though he wanted to kill the orange player and make him suffer, he knew could not kill someone in cold blood.

Seeing his hesitation the orange player cackled. "It's a shame what happened to your friend. Oh well... I will just spend sometime in the cell-"

The orange player stopped in mid sentence, his eyes widened and he grasped for his throat. Across the orange player's neck a thin red line appeared. Behind the orange player Hermes stood with dagger in hand. His eyes empty of any emotion as he watched the orange player explode into polygons.

"Wait!" Kirito cried out to the army player but Hermes without a reply vanished into the battle.

* * *

The rest of the battle was over relatively quickly, he could only remember fragments of what had happened next. In the end at dozen green players had died from the battle while many members of the «Laughing Coffin» had been killed or captured.

Kirito stared at the battlefield, and thought about Ares' death and how he could have prevented it. He knew that his hesitation cost a life of another player. It was his fault that the army player had died, he had more than enough chance to kill the orange player but he held back. Had he killed the orange player to begin with his friend wouldn't have died. It dawned on him that he was the one responsible for Ares dying and not the orange player.

With dark thoughts in his mind, he continued to stare at the battlefield until he saw Yuri walking towards him. The sight of the army player looking at him relief for finding him to be still alive, just increased the guilt he carried.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Not knowing how to break the news to her gently, he closed his eyes. "Ares… he-he's dead. I am sorry."

"What? You are joking right?" Yuri said, probably thinking that he was telling her a joking. Opening his eyes, he looked at her trying to convey the truth. Yuri after sometime realized the truth, and her cheerful expression changed to that of surprise.

"He-he can't be dead. Other people die but we don't die."

Gradually she stiffened and stood silently as tears rolled down her cheeks.

A part of him wanted to comfort her, but the thought that he had killed Ares stopped him.

Nearby, Klein who had been talking with the «Fuurinkazan» quietly celebrating the fact that they had not lost anyone during the bloody skirmish, saw Yuri cry and rushed towards her.

"What wrong?" he asked.

"Ares is dead." Yuri said to Klein as she began to sob.

Klein winced and briefly hesitated before gently hugging Yuri and letting her cry into his shoulder.

Kirito overwhelmed with guilt, could not look at them. Turning around he walked away from the battlefield.


End file.
